As we outlined at the end of May, asking rents in San Francisco were actually trending up, having ticked up two months in a row. And having ticked up another 2 percent over the past month, the weighted average asking rent for an apartment in San Francisco is now back over $3,500 a month.
That being said, the average asking rent in San Francisco still 2 percent lower than at the same time last year, not higher, and 21 percent below its 2015-era peak of nearly $4,500 a month, with the average asking rent for a one-bedroom in San Francisco still holding at a little under $3,000 per month, which is effectively even on a year-over-year basis but still 19 percent below peak.
At the same time, the number of apartments listed for rent in San Francisco (i.e., inventory) has dropped further below pre-pandemic levels, at which point the average asking rent in the city was 14 percent higher than today, despite more inventory, with fewer people now in the local labor force, employed and demanding housing, facts that aren’t “bearish” or “pessimistic” in nature but key to understanding and acting on the actual market trends, none of which should catch any plugged-in readers, other than the most obstinate, by surprise.
Keep in mind that our analyses of the rental market in San Francisco are based on over 200,000 data points going back two decades that we maintain, normalize and index on a monthly basis (versus relying on a few years of data or “recollections”). We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.
The online response when you point out rents remain at decade lows is… no response. Forget trying to adjust for inflation.
You killed socketsite.
RiP to a once great site!
And this was always one of my favorite pictures periodically posted on the site.
Another triviality, for anyone else who remembers from perhaps back in the 2010’s, with one of the previous page formats (and my apologies for inability to more accurately format the third word in bold):
ant farm YES