Having ticked up 3 percent in January, the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in Oakland slipped a little over 2 percent in February to $2,450 a month, which is 7 percent higher than at the same time last year but still 8 percent lower than prior to the pandemic and 18 percent below its 2016-era peak.
At the same time, while listed inventory in San Francisco is back to pre-pandemic levels, and inventory levels in Oakland did inch down a few percent over the past month and have dropped 30 percent since peaking in the first quarter of last year, there are still over 60 percent more apartments listed for rent in Oakland than there were prior to the pandemic (at which point the average asking rent was $225 lower than today).