As we first outlined last week, while the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in San Francisco has been holding at around $3,100 a month, listing activity (i.e., availability) has inched up. And on a year-over-year basis, which takes into account seasonality, asking rents have actually continued to drop.
At the same time, the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in Oakland has been hodling (yes, that’s an intentional typo) as well, albeit at a lower average of $2,300 per month (which is down 16 percent on a year-over-year basis versus a 25 percent year-over-year drop in San Francisco).
And with listing activity in Oakland now running over 160 percent higher on a year-over-year basis, versus only 100 percent higher at the end of last year, and the discount as compared to San Francisco having dropped to 25 percent, versus a five-year average that’s closer to 35 percent, “the current plateau in asking prices might represent more of a psychological barrier or hope than a true market floor and/or clearing price,” as we noted for the rental market in San Francisco as well.