Looking at the San Francisco rental market today, it’s clear that the city isn’t just recovering from its pandemic doldrums — it’s roaring back with a vengeance. New data reveals the city had the largest annual rent growth rates across 100 tracked cities this past month. What’s particularly striking is the speed of the turnaround — current rents have catapulted the city back to pre-2020 price levels that not long ago seemed unthinkable.
One-bedroom apartments in San Francisco are up 13.3%, and two-bedrooms are surging 16.3% year over year, according to Crystal Chen, a spokesperson for Zumper. “Two beds are actually hitting a pre-pandemic rate of $4,780, which is something we haven’t seen since summer of 2019,” Chen told SFGATE during a phone call.
The driving forces behind this shift are familiar, yet newly intensified. Chen pointed to significant AI-sector employment growth and more stringent office attendance requirements being key factors, but also noted a wider societal change…