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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

#81

Post by Mc91 »

> there are still over three times as many apartments currently listed for rent in San Francisco than there were at the same time last year with an overall vacancy rate that’s ticked up to around 10 percent (and climbing).

In terms of prices, rent is "sticky" whereas the price of something like apples is not. Meaning if apples are not selling, the price is cut quickly. Rent prices go down slower, but high vacancies and high supply are a leading indicator that prices will go down more.

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

#82

Post by mym1990 »

SllX wrote: post #3

> the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in the city, which currently measures around 2.3 bedrooms when counting a studio as having one, has dropped to $3,100 a month. Still too high. Was checking into apartment prices earlier in the year and it is amazing the number of landlords that will try and sell you on a “kitchen” that is a mini-fridge, tiny sink, microwave and a hot plate whilst still charging you…

Those landlords don't try to sell that small kitchen, they DO sell that small kitchen. When I was shopping for an apartment in SF 2 years ago there was no spot that did not have at least 2 other parties looking at it. There was no room for negotiation or to even take a day to think it over, if you walked away from it, there were 2 people right behind you to take it.

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

#83

Post by mancerayder »

FreakyT wrote: post #22
SllX wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both. I spent the last decade having these conversations with people who also grew up here and can’t afford to remain here without staying with their parents, with some of the stranger conversations devolving into my counter parties brainstorming ways to kick tech people out of the City and stop new people from moving in altogether, as if freedom of movement in the United States wasn’t really a thing. It’s not “suppl…

Exactly -- there's a pervasive belief in the bay area that high rents are solely due to the evil cabal of landlords who meet every week in a dimly lit room and agree to charge sky-high rents while cackling maniacally and twirling their perfectly-waxed moustaches. The sudden COVID-related rent price drop indicates that this theory is nonsense, and that the high rents are solely a function of supply and demand, but I'm…

There are two problems with this line of reasoning of the type of muddied thinking you're replying to. The first is that it can both be true that supply and demand as a phenomenon can be used to meaningfully explain the world and applies to housing, AND that an individual can denounce landlords morally with the phrase "greedy". However, the OP cannot reconcile the two concepts, they said.

Next, the idea that landlords are a unified group with a common set of designs is itself a premise that requires a little bit of legwork. Here's one. What are landlord expenses versus their expenditures. Are they large or small landlords. etc. To hell with nuance, let's create an Us v Them type of discourse, and see who bites.

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

#84

Post by welder »

momokoko wrote: post #50
welder wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes cash, but not necessarily foreign. I recently went through the process of placing bids on 2 houses in SF and both had cash offers higher and both cash offers came from local residents already living in SF.

That does not mean the funds did not come from overseas. It is common that it will be passed through a local resident, by way of LLC, for the actual purchase.

In these cases, the funds came from tech money. I made sure to check at the time so I could better understand the market. One buyer was friends with the seller, but they didn't know until receiving his formal offer. SF is a small city, especially in tech circles.

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

#85

Post by SllX »

mym1990 wrote: post #82
SllX wrote: post #3

> the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in the city, which currently measures around 2.3 bedrooms when counting a studio as having one, has dropped to $3,100 a month. Still too high. Was checking into apartment prices earlier in the year and it is amazing the number of landlords that will try and sell you on a “kitchen” that is a mini-fridge, tiny sink, microwave and a hot plate whilst still charging you…

Those landlords don't try to sell that small kitchen, they DO sell that small kitchen. When I was shopping for an apartment in SF 2 years ago there was no spot that did not have at least 2 other parties looking at it. There was no room for negotiation or to even take a day to think it over, if you walked away from it, there were 2 people right behind you to take it.

You raise a good point. I shouldn’t have understated.

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

#86

Post by TrackerFF »

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…

Having lived on another island, with the same woes of SF (limited land, high growth), the problem is always the same - even though it's been on a much smaller scale.

The people that have owned for the past 30-50 years, are completely unwilling to give up on their single family homes, gardens, etc. They basically demand to live a nice and cushy suburban life, in the middle of a big city.

It then takes forever to build vertically, because for every projects that's proposed, there are hundreds, of not thousands of protests from neighbors that'll lose some sunlight, depreciation of property value, and what not - or they just don't like the modern architecture. So it can take YEARS to just get the first shovel in ground, because these projects go through so many rounds in city councils and what not.

That's how you end up with extremely partisan / one-sided city councils, consisting of established home/land owners, that will fight tooth and nail to impose draconian zoning laws, and general NIMBY-politics.

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

#87

Post by bwest87 »

Oakland relaxed a lot of zoning, and permitting regulations about 5 years ago, and so now you're starting to really see production sky rocket. This article [0] mentions 2019 was had 15x more units completed than 2018. And 3x the total units from 2013-2018 combined. Anecdotally, I have several friends who've all moved to Oakland in the last year or so. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and maybe, hopefully, SF will take the hint.

[0] - https://www.city-journal.org/oakland-rezoning-california-hou...

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

#88

Post by bfirsh »

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…

As a data point: I asked for 25% off my 1 bedroom rent (which seemed like roughly market rate). They said something along the lines of "we're not lowering any rents because we're struggling due to the economy".

So, I left and they got nothing. I doubt they're going to rent it out again for a while.

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

#89

Post by Simulacra »

In the Noe Valley rent is still pretty darn high. While that is to be expected in this area, a lot of people have moved out and the neighborhood is a little vacant. With the massively high rents I imagine most landlords paid off mortgages, so could these expensive properties remain empty indefinitely?
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