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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

#171

Post by eloff »

daniellarusso wrote: post #140
fennecfoxen wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear SF, More apartments built are the only thing to make housing more affordable for normal people. But, when you think of them, you're thinking way too small. You need to think in terms of, like, literally doubling the number of apartments available, and they may then be in reach of normal people once more. You also need to get yourself together and reverse that trend where your transit system has carried fewer peo…

So, the infrastructure can handle double its current utilization? Aren’t the sewers in SF literally over a century old? No issues with adequate water supply and sewage treatment?

The roads are the tougher part. But there's mass transit - not everyone needs to own or drive a car.

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

#172

Post by whimsicalism »

wilde wrote: post #35
whimsicalism wrote: post #19

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

If you’re in CA, you can probably break the lease if you really want to. You might be able to negotiate a rent reduction at least to save you both some hassle. https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/tenants-right-break-...

I can imagine the unit remaining empty for months and then re-renting for $600-$1000 less.

I would be on the hook for the empty months as well as the difference between the current rent I'm paying and the rent the new tenant is paying.

So, no, I can't really just "break the lease" and I can't imagine why they would reduce my rent.

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

#173

Post by mywittyname »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #114
jnwatson wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed. The biggest issue with residental construction today is approval process and the amount of land that can be utilized. An unreliable approval process means increased investment risk which keeps away investors. Setbacks and parking space requirements significantly impact the amount of usable living space per acre of land. Both of the above can be addressed by local municipalities. High density dwelling…

The giant parking lots and 6 to 8 lane roads are what would need to go in order to make a place walkable on the level of SF or NYC. Additionally, a lot of the smaller, quirky high density living in these cities is because they didn’t have to comply with ADA at the time of construction. If you start adding elevators and ramps and the space needed in passages and doorways for wheelchairs to turn around, you will end up…

Moving away from car-friendliness will do so much more for density and walk-ability than doing away with ADA compliance, by easily a factor of 1000. I built a house which is largely ADA compliant, and lost maybe 10 square feet, most of that was due to converting traditional doors to pocket doors, which requires wider walls. For the most part, all of the doorways could accommodate the wider door requirements without moving any walls.

If I got rid of my oversized two-car garage, I could recover maybe 400 square feet. Without a driveway, another house of the same exact size could be placed on the same lot.

Cars are antithetical to density. Discouraging their use will greatly improve city density, while also having environmental benefits.

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

#174

Post by whimsicalism »

plants wrote: post #47
whimsicalism wrote: post #19

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

look for vacant units in your building (if you're in an apartment) and see if you can negotiate a lower rate with your landlord based on the price of the units that are currently up for rent. if you're not in an apartment, you might be able to do the same thing with houses in your area

What incentive do they have to negotiate? I haven't heard of anyone doing this. (also there are no empty units in my apartment)

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

#175

Post by Nelkins »

robbyt wrote: post #99

Dear SF, More apartments built will not help make housing more affordable for normal people. Learn about the NYC real estate market- even pre covid apartment vacancy was extremely high, and the true numbers are unknown because building developers are manipulating the market by releasing units slowly. With all the excessive inventory in NYC, you'd think that a normal person (defined by median income) could afford to b…

This is absolutely false. Every three years, by law, NYC does a housing and vacancy survey of tens of thousands of apartments (the most recent survey was in 2017). The raw data is here[0], and selected findings are here[1]. You can see in in the selected findings that the vacancy rate in NYC in 2017 was 3.63%, which is INCREDIBLY low. A "healthy" vacancy rate is closer to 7% or 8%[2].

[0] https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/nychvs.html

[1] https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/about/2017-hv...

[2] https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/8/30/what-vacancy-r...

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

#176

Post by CalRobert »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #160
robbyt wrote: post #99

Dear SF, More apartments built will not help make housing more affordable for normal people. Learn about the NYC real estate market- even pre covid apartment vacancy was extremely high, and the true numbers are unknown because building developers are manipulating the market by releasing units slowly. With all the excessive inventory in NYC, you'd think that a normal person (defined by median income) could afford to b…

How about mixed-cost buildings? Some higher-cost "luxury" units whose price/rent subsidizes the lower cost "essential" units, where firemen, teachers, local people can live.

Why should we subsidize homes for firefighters?

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

#178

Post by bnralt »

TrackerFF wrote: post #86
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…

The population in San Francisco is at an all time high. I wonder why the popular solution is to transform the city against the wishes of its long time residents into something that newcomers want, and not develop new urban centers elsewhere for newcomers. People act shocked that residents advocated for the kind of city they want and not the kind of city other people want.

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

#179

Post by epistasis »

cogman10 wrote: post #109
shortandsweet wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What should we do robbyt?

Taxing unoccupied homes and apartments will fix things real fast.

Vancouver does this, and it reveals that vacant homes are not the problem. There's a small additional revenue stream, and some college students get to rent our mansions for cheap, but it's simply not enough homes to have much of an impact.

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

#180

Post by pratik661 »

daniellarusso wrote: post #140
fennecfoxen wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear SF, More apartments built are the only thing to make housing more affordable for normal people. But, when you think of them, you're thinking way too small. You need to think in terms of, like, literally doubling the number of apartments available, and they may then be in reach of normal people once more. You also need to get yourself together and reverse that trend where your transit system has carried fewer peo…

So, the infrastructure can handle double its current utilization? Aren’t the sewers in SF literally over a century old? No issues with adequate water supply and sewage treatment?

Some of them are from 1875 to be precise. I know because a section of Mission St collapsed when I was there. The causus belli was a decrepit sewage tunnel from the 1870s.
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