While the cost of capital continues to rise, the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in San Francisco proper has now held firm at roughly $3,600 a month for seven straight months and listed inventory levels are ticking up.
As such, the average asking rent in San Francisco is 3 percent lower than at the same time last year, marking the third straight month with a year-over-year decline, 12 percent lower than prior to the pandemic and 19 percent below its 2015-era peak of nearly $4,500 a month, with the average asking rent for a one-bedroom in San Francisco having inched back down to $3,000 per month, which is one (1) percent lower than at the same time last year, 15 percent lower than prior to the pandemic, and 19 percent below peak.
At the same time, the number of apartments listed for rent in San Francisco is running 25 percent higher than at the same time last year, with over 30 percent more studios and one-bedrooms on the market and local employment trending down, key facts that aren’t “bearish” or “pessimistic” in nature but simply reality (and shouldn’t catch any plugged-in readers by surprise).
Our analysis of the rental market in San Francisco is based on over 170,000 data points going back to 2004 that we maintain, normalize and index on a monthly basis, not simply a few years of data or recollections. And as always, we’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.