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Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

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Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#51

Post by lock-free »

Schiendelman wrote: post #46
xyst wrote: post #40

If the city would rezone all of the single family homes into higher density buildings, this wouldn't be a problem. Flood the area with supply and the cost will go down to reasonable levels. This is a problem all across the nation. Everyone wants a single family home, so this leads to two things: outrageously high costs of homes, or people moving out to the suburbs and thus worsening the rush hour traffic and smog iss…

And a lot of people only want a single family home because they want a certain amount of living space. In a commodified housing market, they would likely pay less for that space in a condo.

I want a single family home because it has no shared walls and a private backyard space for my kids and dog. It's not that hard to find condos or apartments with decent floor space.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#52

Post by ihaveajob »

xyst wrote: post #40

If the city would rezone all of the single family homes into higher density buildings, this wouldn't be a problem. Flood the area with supply and the cost will go down to reasonable levels. This is a problem all across the nation. Everyone wants a single family home, so this leads to two things: outrageously high costs of homes, or people moving out to the suburbs and thus worsening the rush hour traffic and smog iss…

Honestly I'm surprised no other city in the bay area has taken the baton and aimed to overtake SF in terms of relevance by becoming the densest, most thriving city in the region. Oakland is at least trying to cope with demand in some neighborhoods. I'm rooting for that.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#53

Post by claydavisss »

xyst wrote: post #40

If the city would rezone all of the single family homes into higher density buildings, this wouldn't be a problem. Flood the area with supply and the cost will go down to reasonable levels. This is a problem all across the nation. Everyone wants a single family home, so this leads to two things: outrageously high costs of homes, or people moving out to the suburbs and thus worsening the rush hour traffic and smog iss…

Increasingly, single family detached homes in the interior of SF are owned by the very wealthy who can remain in the city to shape policy over the long term, while renters come and go. So don't expect anyone at City Hall to swing a wrecking ball in the direction of Pac Heights.

The problem has solved itself already - the US is big and empty. There is little reason to stack people twenty stories high in a Zoom economy. So much talk here of policy changes, LVT etc etc...just freaking move!! That's a very trite response but it also is the best one. If anything, the pandemic has taken a wrecking ball to the entire thesis of New Urbanism and dense development...many Bay Area residents have already figured it out, don't be the last to get the memo.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#54

Post by ozzyoli »

Don't ask, Don't get.

Everyone I know who has asked for a discount has got the discount.

After several months of the pandemic, and noticing the adjacent apartment being relisted by my landlord at a discount I emailed my landlord and asked if I could have my rent adjusted by the same discount. They said yes, if I committed to another years lease.

Saving 5% of rent, at the cost of a one year commitment didn't seem like a win, so I politely declined explaining my reasoning, and suggested we leave things as they are.

A week or so later, out of the blue by my rent got adjusted by 10%+ instead of 5% with no need to commit to stay.

Sufficed to say, if their intention was for me to stay put, it worked!

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#55

Post by lotsofpulp »

cat199 wrote: post #39
graeme wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Vancouver’s prices are still rising. Foreign investment is demand. A rise in demand is much more impactful if supply is static.

> Foreign investment is demand. demand for investing in the limited supply of apartments based on their profitability is not the same thing as demand for the actual product of housing, which is what supply and demand in the housing market is supposed to be about - you're basically proving the point that incentives here are perverse

There is lots of supply of money relative to supply of comparable investment opportunities (in societies with stable governments).

There is lots of demand for housing relative to supply of housing.

There is lack of supply of cities with equivalent income opportunities and amenities of SF relative to demand for that type of city.

All various ways of discussing the supply and demand curves that cause prices. And multiple solutions to address each one, assuming the goal is to make prices go lower. Such as increasing income/wealth tax, vacancy tax, increasing property taxes, increasing supply of housing, increasing cities like SF with labor laws similar to CA, etc.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#56

Post by momokoko »

duxup wrote: post #45
ashtonkem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incredibly unhelpful and un-persuasive.

On a semi related note, I've seen a lot more 'stop' and 'stop it' on the internet lately. Arguably the various forms of saying the same thing come and go in terms of what is commonly used, but I've been surprised to see such empty words suddenly so common. Personally I would be a bit embarrassed to just tell people to 'stop it' as to me it seems sort of childish, but apparently not everyone. It's strange.

Because it gets old listening to the same tired uninformed troupes from some random person on the internet that is just regurgitating misinformation.

For people that actually live in San Francisco this is a real issue that affects our daily lives. Having some random person spreading more incorrect info is insulting and actually potentially harmful to the people that actually live here and have to pay those rents like I do.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#57

Post by lovehashbrowns »

djsumdog wrote: post #28
whimsicalism wrote: post #19

Good thing I signed right before the rent drop and can't break my lease

I moved into a new downtown apartment in a major midwestern city back in April thinking this would be over by May. Now I'm stuck in a dystopian downtown. My lease is up in April though. I'm looking forward to putting everything in a POD and heading back to where I grew up in small town America. Hopefully it will help all cities go back to reasonable prices, for people who still want to live there.

I did the same! I likely could have extended my lease to monthly and negotiated an even better deal had I known how long this would last. I saw so many people in my building moving out, and a lot of the rooms in my floor are still empty 7-8 months later.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#58

Post by legolas2412 »

ozzyoli wrote: post #54

Don't ask, Don't get. Everyone I know who has asked for a discount has got the discount. After several months of the pandemic, and noticing the adjacent apartment being relisted by my landlord at a discount I emailed my landlord and asked if I could have my rent adjusted by the same discount. They said yes, if I committed to another years lease. Saving 5% of rent, at the cost of a one year commitment didn't seem like…

I am in bay area, but my apartment complex refused to readjust rent to reflect the drop in rent (2500$ to 1800$!). I decided to break the lease and move to a better area.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#59

Post by packetlost »

djsumdog wrote: post #28
whimsicalism wrote: post #19

Good thing I signed right before the rent drop and can't break my lease

I moved into a new downtown apartment in a major midwestern city back in April thinking this would be over by May. Now I'm stuck in a dystopian downtown. My lease is up in April though. I'm looking forward to putting everything in a POD and heading back to where I grew up in small town America. Hopefully it will help all cities go back to reasonable prices, for people who still want to live there.

Madison?

State St. (the only real 4 blocks of downtown Madison has) still has a ton of boards up from the BLM protests, and last I heard the count for closed stores this year was almost 40.

Re: Average Rent in San Francisco Has Dropped $1k This Year

#60

Post by tolbish »

ModernMech wrote: post #25
paulpauper wrote: post #9

renting in SF...talk about a cash incinerator

Yup. I was part of a startup that raised in the millions. Of that, probably 30-50% went to office rent and the rent of the employees. Might as well be a direct line from investors into Bay Area landlords’ pockets.

Is that not what you preferred when deciding to work at a bay area startup instead of somewhere cheaper?
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