Southern California renters aren’t the only local tenants paying top dollar to the landlord.
My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a report from Commercial Cafe tracking key performance metrics for industrial and commercial real estate, a niche primarily made up of warehouses and other logistics facilities. The report, which studied 30 big U.S. markets as of September, shows that when it comes to warehouse costs, there’s almost no place like Southern California.
No. 1 nationwide for rent was Orange County, where all industrial leases average $17.09 per square foot – up 7% in a year. And new tenants pay more: the past year’s leases have run $19 per square foot, also tops in the nation.
No. 2 was the Los Angeles market, with rents averaging $15.59 per square foot – up 5% in a year. An L.A. lease cost in the past year was an average $14.88 per square foot, No. 6 nationally.
Those sky-high costs help explain why the Inland Empire has become warehouse-filled.
Industrial rents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties seem like a bargain at $11.65 per square foot – No. 7 nationally and up 8% in a year. New leases average $14.58 per square foot, also the seventh-highest among the 30 markets.
Contrast those Southern California costs with the national norm: $8.72 per square foot, up 6% in a year, with the new leases at $10 per square foot.
Southern California warehouses handle a significant share of the goods flowing through the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports, one of the largest shipping hubs in the world. Additionally, Southern California itself requires extensive logistic networks to support the nation’s second-most populous region.
Those local demands overcome the lofty costs, keeping empty Southern California warehouse space relatively hard to find.
Inland Empire vacancies are 7.7% of supply, eighth-lowest among the 30 markets. Orange County’s 8.2% was No. 10, and Los Angeles’s 8.3% was No. 12.
And those empty local warehouses are below the nation’s 9.5% vacancy rate.
Plus, the region’s pricey rents and modest vacancies translate into higher selling prices.
Orange County industrial properties sold in the first nine months of 2025 at $306 per square foot, the second-highest price behind Detroit’s $624. The O.C. sale valuation was more than double the typical national price tag of $142 per square foot.
Los Angeles warehouses went for $282 per square foot, No. 3, and the Inland Empire sold at $234 per square foot, No. 6.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
