Over the past year, we've watched as San Francisco's already astronomical rents just kept rising, even surpassing New York's median asking rent for newly listed apartments. Now, as the end of 2014 approaches, apartment rental website Zumper has compiled prices of one-bedroom apartments and houses over the past year and determined that San Francisco's rents were up 13.5 percent in 2014. Noe Valley experienced the largest rise in rent, going up 29.2 percent over the year according to Zumper's data, which looks at the asking rents for listed apartments (and does not factor in existing rent paid by tenants who stay put). Other neighborhoods that experienced double-digit rises include the Mission and Mission Dolores, the Outer Sunset, Ashbury Heights, the Lower Haight, NoPa, Lone Mountain, Presidio and Laurel Heights, and the Financial District.
Despite the huge jump in rents in San Francisco, some of the neighborhoods that are traditionally among the most expensive in the city saw rents go down this year. The Marina, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, and Nob Hill all experienced small rent decreases. Zumper attributes this phenomenon to the opening of luxury buildings around SoMa that drew some luxury-market renters who would have traditionally gone to the city's fancy northern neighborhoods. The neighborhoods that saw decreases this year were also among those that had seen the biggest rent increases over the past few years, and they finally hit some sort of plateau.
What will 2015 bring for San Francisco rents? With the economy continuing to boom and a fairly stagnant housing supply, the city isn't likely to see any big downward movement in rent prices. But will they continue their dizzying climb?
· Mapping the Median Rent of a One-Bedroom in San Francisco [Curbed SF]
· Zumper [Official Site]
· San Francisco Apartment Rents Rose by 13.5% in 2014 [Zumper]
· For the Fourth Month Straight, SF's Median Rent Tops New York's [Curbed SF]