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Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

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Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#21

Post by quesera »

planetguy wrote: post #12
quesera wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get roommates, get ready to pay, and don't expect much. There are some great old houses in South of Market, but turnover is rare, and they're all expensive. There are some great/awful new live/work buildings there too, but most of them are condos and all of them are expensive. Affordability comes in Outer Mission, Excelsior, Outer Richmond, Outer Sunset. Occasionally Potrero Hill toward Cesar Chavez. "Affordability"…

Also, remember that East Bay near BART is closer to South of Market than most of San Francisco city is, time-wise Depends what part of the East Bay, of course. West Oakland is the closest BART station, but it is in some serious ghetto. Lake Merritt, Berkeley (esp North Berkeley) and Rockridge are your first good options, but they'll take a little longer to get to. My advice would be definitely to check out Rockridge,…

Yep. Sketchiness is proportional to affordability.

Actually the Dogpatch area has come a long way in the last decade or so. Not much of a secret any more, and low turnover, but still relatively cheap, easy access to South of Market (or 101), and nicer than many other options. Low walkability, but easy parking...

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#22

Post by eshvk »

wunderland wrote: post #4

What should someone do if they're moving to SF and want to live in SOMA or nearby neighborhoods? Does anyone have any recommendations? It seems like there aren't that many choices for buildings, and a lot of them aren't that new. All of the reviews I have read (for almost all of the buildings) sound mediocre or negative.

Avalon is brand new and freaking expensive. It depends on your comfort level. For me $3K odd for a 1 bedroom apartment was deeply discomforting. If you are open to living a little far away, take a look at the Castro, Noe Valley, Haight-Ashbury. All these neighborhoods are on Muni train lines which will make traveling to SoMa suck less (it won't be awesome but it will be ok).

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#23

Post by dot »

juiceandjuice wrote: post #20
bbrian wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any figures? I live in Dublin, Ireland, and pay €500 ($624) per month for a room in a two bed apartment in the centre of the city. That's cheap for the area -- I live within walking distance of all the bars.

You can't get a room share in most of SF for under $700, for SOMA and the Mission you'll be lucky at $850. A studio you might be able to get for $1200-$1500, 1BR $1400-1800, 2BR $2000-$$$$$. This is assuming you don't want to live in Bayview.

I think you need to add about 50% to all those prices.

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#24

Post by jseliger »

The basic problem is simple: lots of demand chasing little supply, as discussed extensively here: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/05/face... (HN discussion: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/05/face... ). See also this: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/a-tale-o... .

This is one of these problems that has a simple, obvious solution—raise or remove height limits, mandatory building setbacks, and parking space requirements—that will probably be ignored in favor of grandstanding and lots of small, fiddly solutions that don't deal with the overall problem.

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#25

Post by planetguy »

ubernostrum wrote: post #19
tokenadult wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there should absolutely be a rent stabilization law -- everywhere Do you think this on the grounds of economic theory? The empirical finding is that rent control laws limit the supply of rental housing unduly wherever they are enforced. What's a successful example of a place with a "rent stabilization law"? http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RentControl.html http://econjwatch.org/articles/rent-control-do-econ…

You seem to be conflating "rent control" and "rent stabilization", which are two different things. Also, these economists appear to be ignoring a simple practical matter. The idea behind most rent regulation is to avoid pricing low-income-but-necessary-to-basic-function people out of an area. These are, basically, the garbagemen and janitors and cooks and such, who can quickly find themselves priced out of anything w…

That's the stated justification. The real reason is that politicians of certain stripes enjoy redistributing wealth from the landlord class to the tenant class and getting rewarded with votes for it, so the stated reason is disingenuous anyway, but let's examine the stated reason carefully.

Has this ever actually happened? Has any city ever run out of garbagemen and janitors due to a lack of rent control? I have never heard of anything like this happening, even in extremely expensive cities with free rental markets.

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#26

Post by tsunamifury »

juiceandjuice wrote: post #20
bbrian wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any figures? I live in Dublin, Ireland, and pay €500 ($624) per month for a room in a two bed apartment in the centre of the city. That's cheap for the area -- I live within walking distance of all the bars.

You can't get a room share in most of SF for under $700, for SOMA and the Mission you'll be lucky at $850. A studio you might be able to get for $1200-$1500, 1BR $1400-1800, 2BR $2000-$$$$$. This is assuming you don't want to live in Bayview.

Studio in the in non-sketchy, easy transit, city proper is going to be 1900, 1bd 2000-3000 range easy, 2 bedrooms can quickly get near 4000.

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#27

Post by joejohnson »

bbrian wrote: post #18
quesera wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get roommates, get ready to pay, and don't expect much. There are some great old houses in South of Market, but turnover is rare, and they're all expensive. There are some great/awful new live/work buildings there too, but most of them are condos and all of them are expensive. Affordability comes in Outer Mission, Excelsior, Outer Richmond, Outer Sunset. Occasionally Potrero Hill toward Cesar Chavez. "Affordability"…

Any figures? I live in Dublin, Ireland, and pay €500 ($624) per month for a room in a two bed apartment in the centre of the city. That's cheap for the area -- I live within walking distance of all the bars.

Good estimates for SOMA pricing:

  Studio: $2000-$2700
  1BR: $2500-$3200
  2BR: $3100-4000

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#28

Post by shawnee_ »

gergles wrote: post #3

I used to live in a building near a Google shuttle stop on the border of the TL. They wanted to raise my rent almost 20% y/y for a lease renewal, and the place was a trainwreck quality-wise (as was the neighborhood.) When I went to move out, the leasing agent just shrugged and said "Some Googler will happily pay even more than that." The real problem is SF prohibiting any dense housing from being built anywhere in th…

Part of the problem is that when rents are raised in a predatory fashion, the purchasing power of the renter is diminished.

  Homeownership rate, 2006-2010 in SF County = 37.5%	
  Homeownership rate, 2006-2010 in California = 57.4%

  Median value of owner-occupied units, SF 2010 = $785,200  (2000 = $396,400)	
  Median value of owner-occupied units, California 2010 = $458,500  (2000 = $211,500)
Sources: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06075.html / http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/california/san-fran...

Rent control and rent stabilization aren't about low rent; they are about preventing landlords from enacting unreasonable increases in rent that are related to housing booms and bubbles. Renters really should be immune from the mortgage / interest rate speculation that drives housing booms and bubbles. Instead, the supply of renters is essentially leeched of its ability to invest its capital in housing for the long-term.

The topic comes up here so frequently; it's really astonishing how few people understand it.

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#29

Post by mc32 »

_delirium wrote: post #11
planetguy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of a subway line, would it be possible to close off one of San Francisco's many east-west streets (Geary if you like, probably a couple north-south of there would be better) and run a light rail line (using Muni Metro or similar cars) on an east-west route? You could adjust the timing of the traffic lights to ensure that the rail line always (or usually) has priority and cross the whole city in ten minutes.

There's a plan currently under discussion for bus rapid transit on the Geary corridor, which is sort of the el-cheapo version of that idea ( http://www.sfcta.org/content/view/37/70/ ). Give the bus a dedicated, physically separated lane to reduce traffic problems, and build light-rail-esque, less frequent stations in the median with level boarding. Not a full solution, but the hope is that it'll raise the average bus…

I really think both the Geary and Van Ness corridors need at least a monorail to handle the capacity. BRT seems like a band-aid, to me. Of course, it's cheaper and quicker to deploy. Long term, though, if they build the Geary corridor as envisioned (dense housing) then I think something like monorail would be suitable.

Re: Tech Boom Hits San Francisco Rental Prices

#30

Post by sjwalter »

juiceandjuice wrote: post #20
bbrian wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any figures? I live in Dublin, Ireland, and pay €500 ($624) per month for a room in a two bed apartment in the centre of the city. That's cheap for the area -- I live within walking distance of all the bars.

You can't get a room share in most of SF for under $700, for SOMA and the Mission you'll be lucky at $850. A studio you might be able to get for $1200-$1500, 1BR $1400-1800, 2BR $2000-$$$$$. This is assuming you don't want to live in Bayview.

Your data seems stale. We moved in 9 months ago, when a studio in the Tenderloin was $1450. We have a "jr" 1 bedroom in Alamo Square for $1900.
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