Having ticked up a (1) percent in November, the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in Oakland inched up another 0.4 percent in December to $2,440 a month, which is 7 percent higher than at the end of last year and roughly in line with the muted rebound in San Francisco, driven by a 10 percent increase in the average asking rent for a two-bedroom which has ticked back over $2,700 a month for the first time in 16 months.
That being said, the average asking rent in Oakland is still 9 percent lower than prior to the pandemic and 18 percent below a 2016-era peak of closer to $3,000 per month.
And while listed inventory levels have dropped around 25 percent since peaking in the first quarter of this year, and are 20 percent lower than at the end of 2020, there are still twice as many apartments listed for rent in Oakland than there were at the end of 2019.
…still 9 percent lower than prior to the pandemic and 18 percent below a 2016-era peak…
Wait, wait, so you’re saying the market peaked years ago ?? (Probably, since you’ve been saying it for something like five years now.)
Anyway, enough about ancient history; wouldn’t it be something if the current “recovery” in rents
feeblepathetichope-inducing tho it might be, is actually playing the part of Spring 1930, rather than 1933?About 15% of the renters in Oakland are significantly behind on rent. The State may pay 80% of that debt – so some stickiness in the market with government subsidized rates. Those people are not moving.
My perception is a lot of people moved out of SF to Oakland during the pandemic. Not wanting to go too far since they didn’t know how the work from home thing would go. I don’t expect them to stay.
Oakland is like SF – crime really varies by neighborhood. A lot of the Oakland vacancies are in areas where crime is going up. People who came in during the pandemic didn’t know that – but it is more than evident to them now.