Welcome back to Curbed Comparisons, a regular column exploring what you can rent for a set dollar amount in different neighborhoods. Is one person's studio another person's townhouse? Let's find out. Our price: $2,000/month.
↑ We're in a Bayview kind of mood this morning, starting with this $2,000/month studio with loft bed, right next to Heron's Head Park and a few yards from India Basin. The new, tiny little apartment is hip and cute, with an abundance of windows. And although the view isn't jaw-dropping, the Bayview's promised bay views are a short walk away. There's no mention of a pet policy, but the owners upstairs have a "friendly dog," so surely that friendliness would extend to yours?
↑ Not far away, over in the Excelsior, is a one bed backyard in-law that's almost suspiciously upscale looking for $2,000/month. The catch is that it's only 600 feet (the wide angle on the first photo is a touch misleading) and there's no kitchen. That is, however, bigger than you'll get for the buck in any other neighborhood, and it sits on a hill with great views to the south. No word on pets.
↑ For an in-law of another color, here's a tiny one in the Sunset for $2,000/month. Although it comes in at a mere 360 feet, it advertises two bedrooms for the price. Is that possible? Well, the photos do indeed seem to show a pair of distinct rooms attached to a broad main room that's a combination kitchen and living area, which surely makes this the most efficient efficiency unit this side of a shipping container. No dogs, but cats are okay.
↑ In-law units in neighborhoods like the Sunset and the Excelsior may be the future of hyper-affordable living in San Francisco, but for over 150 years the Tenderloin/Tendernob neighborhoods were our reliable saving grace on that front. This studio inside a stately 1911 building is quite the stunner. Although small, the apartment has a leg up on the 200 foot places elsewhere in the neighborhood. No mention of pets, beyond wandering Pokémon.
↑ We don't see many Chinatown homes on Comparisons. In fact, this might be the first. The tiny, hyper-dense neighborhood doesn't see many openings, evidently, or at least, none that get advertised outside of the Chinatown community itself. So this one bed, 600-square-foot apartment on the fourth floor of a building at Walter U Lum Place is a rare opportunity right out of the gate. It's not the prettiest we've ever seen, but it does overlook Portsmouth Square.