Curbed Comparisons: What $3,900 rents in San Francisco right now

Welcome 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. Today's price: $3,900.

↑ Things are changing in San Francisco’s southeast, but $3,900/month still goes further in Visitacion Valley than anywhere else. The managers of this building on Crescent Way near Executive Park and Candlestick Point are quick to talk up all of the new development in the area—and indeed, this may be the last time in the history of the neighborhood that a three-bedroom, two-bath, nearly 1,400-foot condo like this rents for a price like this.

↑ But while new construction around Candlestick may be the future of Bayview, over in Silver Terrace the neighborhood’s past and present are still on display in specimens like a three-bed, two-bath house on Quint Avenue that rents for $3,850/month. It’s as typical an example of slightly retro residential San Francisco as is likely to come along. The tranquility garden inside the underpass entrance is a particularly nice touch. No dogs allowed, but cats are okay.

↑ Meanwhile, up in Cow Hollow near the edge of the Presidio, essentially the same price—$3,895/month—nets just a portion of the space: two bedrooms and one bath in a 980-sqaure-foot flat on Union Street. But the price buys a little extra style—from the curb this one retains its lovely warehouse style, though the interior has done away with any other suggestions of an industrial vibe. There’s even heated tile in the bathroom. Speaking of creature comforts, the ad says they’ll “consider small pets.”

↑ This one-bedroom, one-bath apartment at the Arc Light building in South Beach for $3,810/month is pretty cushy looking too, although it makes at least a bid for a look with a little more texture, mostly in the form of preserved materials from the building’s old status as a 19th century electric company warehouse. Now it’s got a LEED Gold rating, a dog run, dyed concrete floors, and, perhaps appropriately, even electric car charging stations; quite a change from the warehouse days. Cats are welcome as well as dogs; the grounds don’t include a cat run, although they’ll probably make do.

↑ And of course, renters who want to leave all that behind and head to the beach for can always migrate to the Outer Sunset, where this two-bedroom, one-bath house on 47th Avenue preserved a few eccentricities of its own, including the brick trim in the kitchen. Pets are good on this lease too, and the price is the best of the five at $3,795/month.