A San Francisco scientist’s Reddit post about her apartment hunt pulled in more than 1.5 million views in three days this fall, and she’s far from alone. Across the city, nurses, scientists, teachers and longtime residents are posting their rental horror stories online, describing a market where eviction notices are on pace to hit their highest number in a decade and two-bedroom rents have cracked $6,000 a month for the first time ever.
Sonja Mihailovic, who works as a scientist and moved to the Bay Area in 2024 to pursue a career in cell therapy, told her story in a Reddit post that, according to SFGATE, drew more than 1,000 comments alongside its viral view count. Mihailovic said she contacted at least 36 rental listings and spent six months searching without finding a place that met her needs, and later took a break from searching. At viewings, she and her friend, nurse Zorica Bruic, regularly found themselves competing against at least 10 other hopeful renters. “I thought I did everything right that I was supposed to do, and I still can’t afford to step foot in the city,” Mihailovic said. She added, “This inequality is becoming unreal and unsustainable,” per the same account.
Her frustration echoes the city’s own numbers. San Francisco eviction notices increased 44% this year, part of what the outlet’s reporting describes as a trend putting the city on pace for its highest eviction count in a decade. SFGATE reported more than 1,000 eviction notices filed, a 44% jump over the prior year, according to the San Francisco Rent Board.
Rent Protections Leave Many Units Exposed
Mihailovic’s situation reflects a structural quirk at the heart of the crisis: around 70% of San Francisco’s rental housing is rent-controlled, per the San Francisco Tenants Union, but that protection excludes single-family homes and any apartment building constructed after 1979. Newer stock falls outside local rent protections. Sonja Mihailovic and her roommate ran into a similar wall when they applied for a home in the Inner Sunset, only to have the landlord raise the proposed rent $250 above the original listing price — a unit that had rented for $1,500 less back in 2024.
Priced Out of the Neighborhood He Grew Up In
Sean Taylor was born in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset and left to pursue a Ph.D. in North Carolina, but he and his girlfriend moved back to the city this past June hoping to settle down near family. Instead, the couple found a rental across the bridge in Mill Valley through Craigslist, while Taylor’s girlfriend works as a fourth-grade teacher. “The goal really was to be back home to be near my family,” Taylor said, according to SFGATE’s reporting…