San Francisco's rent prices have been rocketing up with double-digit increases every year for so long that we almost forgot what a normal rental market looks like. If rental website Zumper's latest analysis is correct, 2015 may have been the year that we finally returned to something resembling normality, at least in increases if not in prices themselves. Rents in the city were up just 4.5 percent overall in 2015, with prices trailing off toward the end of the year. 2015's figure is way down from 2014, when rents jumped 13.5 percent.
Zumper's year-end report comes on the heels of its latest monthly report, which showed prices actually falling in November to land at $3,500 for a one-bedroom apartment. In December, Zumper sees the slowdown continuing. Of course, not all neighborhoods are created equal. Neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, the Lower Haight, and NoPa that were previously home to some deals all shot up by more than 15 percent in 2015. The Mission, North Beach, Downtown, Ashbury Heights, and Potrero Hill were also hot, as was Hayes Valley, where some pricey new rental stock came online.
But this year, there were actually some neighborhoods where prices dipped. Presidio Heights/Laurel Heights, the Western Addition, the Outer Sunset, and the Outer Mission/Excelsior all are less expensive than they were one year ago. And plenty of other neighborhoods from Bernal Heights to the Marina experienced rent increases of under five percent over the past year.
Zumper's report analyzes asking rents on market-rate apartments in Zumper's database during 2015. Therefore, it does not reflect an average of what all San Franciscans are paying, but represents a snapshot of the kinds of prices apartment seekers in saw throughout the year when searching on Zumper.
· See How San Francisco Rent Prices Changed in 2015 [Zumper]
· New Report Shows SF Rent Prices Down, While Oakland's Spike [Curbed SF]