According to a new report by the rental website Apartment List.com, Sonoma County* rents went down in January by less than 1 percent. Is this a sign of better times for Sonoma County renters or a marginal shift in the market?

The January report, released earlier this month, claims that Sonoma County rents dipped by 0.8 percent from December to January, and 0.5 percent year over year. This bucks the national trend of 1 percent rent increases for all major U.S. cities and 0.3 percent increases in California.

Depending on who you ask the current average rent in Sonoma County is between $1,970 and $2,700 for a two-bedroom. Unlike other rental listing websites, Apartment lists figures are leveled by Census data, giving us a more realistic picture of average prices that cannot be obtained by private listing figures alone.

A dip of less than 1 percent is hardly anything to shout about, especially when you take into consideration holiday schedules, which may have limited the number of renters looking and hours offices were open.

Sonoma County is still more expensive than most large U.S. cities.  Two-bedroom units go for $890 in Detroit and $1,372 in Miami. But we are still faring better than our Bay Area neighbors — San Francisco residents pay $3,089 on average for a two bedroom apartment, Oakland tenants pay $2,221.

So what does the average rent get you in Sonoma County? Click through our gallery above to find out.

*Apartment list’s study looks at the city of Santa Rosa as a representative sample, with the concentration of available rentals located in our around our county seat. Their data come from a combination of U.S. Census data and their own private listing figures.