A friend used to rent out a spare room in SF on a regular basis. Two years ago, he could get $1850 for a single room with it's own bath room, furnished. We're talking 6-10 replies from a Craiglist post within 24 hours. Stopped renting it out about a year ago. He just posted it again. Zero takers at $1850. Finally got someone for $1600 (-13% decrease in rent) after a month. A dramatic change. The rental market in SF i…
>The rental market in SF is definitely turning towards the buyer. Am I misunderstanding something? If rents are going down (like you suggest in your story) wouldn't that mean that the rental market in SF is turning toward the renter? Edit: Thanks for the clarification. Terminology can be confusing since there can be buyers/sellers for the renting homes market and buyers/sellers for the buying homes market.
If it was turning toward the seller it would be fast to rent at a higher price (best situation for seller), yet he is describing the opposite, where buyers have plenty of time, choice, and more purchasing power.