Menlo Park — the sleepy midsized Peninsula city that borders Palo Alto — is perhaps best known for being Meta’s corporate headquarters.

But new data from the rental marketplace company Zumper have given it another distinction: it’s the Bay Area city that saw rents rise the fastest over the last year.

Rents for one-bedroom units in Menlo Park rose 34.8% year-over-year. Median one-bedroom rents in the city are $3,370, the second highest in the region, after Mountain View’s $3,440.

Several nearby cities, including Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and Campbell, saw double-digit annual rent growth. Zumper spokesperson Crystal Chen attributed these increases to tech giants like Meta, Apple, and Alphabet resuming in-person work policies, driving up demand and competition for housing close to their offices.

“All the cities that are currently priced above San Francisco, which is now the sixth-most expensive, are either down the peninsula or in the South Bay,” Chen said.

In contrast, San Mateo, South San Francisco, and Emeryville saw annual rent decreases of more than 5%.

Katherine Hunt, a residential broker on the peninsula for Compass, attributed Menlo Park’s rental surge to its proximity to Stanford and status as a highly desirable bedroom community for Silicon Valley.

The influx of popular restaurants like Ramen Nagi, Burma Love, and Farmhouse Kitchen Thai has created a more vibrant downtown, while a limited developmental pipeline has failed to create a major new supply of dense housing. 

“There are plans for multifamily developments downtown that are being contested,” Hunt said. “They call it low-income, but it’s kind of ridiculous to call it that, because it’s really for people with normal income.”

San Francisco — which in 2023 lost its status as the most expensive Bay Area city for renters — has also seen rental rate recovery, albeit at a slower pace than some of its neighbors to the south. One-bedroom rents in the city increased 4.1% over the past year, landing at a median of $3,040.

Cyrus Sanandaji, managing director of Presidio Bay Ventures, is the developer behind Springline, a development in downtown Menlo Park that opened in 2023 and includes commercial office space, 183 apartments, and amenities like a pet spa and golf simulator. 

The company’s strategy for the project included importing a bit of San Francisco’s urban appeal with recognizable brands like Che Fico, Robin, and Barebottle Brewing Co.

Sanandaji said the development helped “push the envelope” for rents in Menlo Park and led to other landlords following suit.  

There is currently one unit at Springline available for rent: a one-bedroom listed at $4,973.