Curbed Comparisons: What $2,700 rents you 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: $2,700.

↑ We’ll start small—very small in this case, a boxy 412-square-foot studio in a 2004 building on New Montgomery, just around the corner from Yerba Buena Gardens. This decidedly minimal studio rents for a non-minimal $2,650/month now, which is quite a lot—or maybe quite a little—to swallow. At least the view of the Pac Bell building and Salesforce Tower from the roof deck upstairs is compelling—and indeed, it’s hard to resist being within walking distance from SFMOMA and everything nearby. No cats allowed, but dogs are “negotiable.”

↑ The next listing is careful to put the word “spacious” right in the headline—which is a perilously subjective term in the world of apartment listings, but in this case any one-bedroom, one-bath apartment in the city is bound to look roomy. This is one’s on the second floor of a two-story, century-plus old triplex in a truly beautiful Fell Street Victorian less than two blocks from Alamo Square. The ad doesn’t mention pets, although for $2,700/month it’s not too much to ask.

↑ And to spread out a little bit more, consider a move over to Glen Park. There, a barrel-fronted, two-bedroom, one-bath house on Monterey Boulevard roughly halfway between the City College and Glen Canyon itself rents for $2,650/month. The photos in the ad aren’t the most flattering, but at least the yard and garden space is nice and wide. Sorry, but the word on pets this time is no.

↑ Then again, who needs to worry about floor space when it’s entirely possible that the physical realm is just an illusion? Here’s a tiny, cottage-like, one-bedroom, one-bath structure in Potrero Hill that parlays its small dimensions into a spiritual realm by offering a “Zen entryway” and a reflecting pool in the back yard. The promise here is “tranquility and peace of mind” for $2,700/month. Honestly, it does look rather quaint. No pets here, either—which is less relaxing.

↑ But for those not feeling the transcendental side of the rental market, more material benefits are yours for $2,650/month in the form of a two-bedroom, one-bath Ingleside apartment on Lakeview, this time just a few blocks south of that same CCSF campus, the upstairs unit of a duplex. Again it’s a no-go on pets; a ruff week all around.