Having ticked back over $2,300 at the end of May, the average asking rent for an apartment in Oakland has since ticked up a percent to $2,360 a month but remains 7 percent lower than at the same time last year, 12 percent lower than prior to the pandemic having hit, and 21 percent below its 2016-era peak of nearly $3,000 a month, with the average asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Oakland still holding at around $2,000 a month (which is 9 percent lower than at the same time last year and roughly 20 percent below peak).
At the same time, the number of apartments listed for rent in Oakland remains over 30 percent higher than at the same time last year, versus having dropped in San Francisco, with local employment having dropped, facts that aren’t “bearish” or “pessimistic” in nature, despite the rationalizations of some, but key to accurately forecasting rents, property values and development trends.
Keep in mind that our analysis of the rental markets in Oakland and San Francisco is based on over 250,000 data points going back two decades, not simply a couple of years nor “recollections,”, that we maintain, normalize and index on a monthly basis. We’ll keep you posted and actually plugged-in.