What $3,800 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 is another person's townhouse? Today's price: $3,800.

↑ Handel Architects designed the building at 570 Jessie in Mid-Market as an escalating series of transparencies framed and seemingly held together by a giant L-shaped frame. But now the average renter can finally get a view of what’s inside. Here a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment asks $3,750/month, boasting the addition of “wide plank floors” and “floor to ceiling glass”—the latter already quite apparent from the outside. The way the vivid aqua-blue tiles in the bathroom mirror the blue tinge on the exterior glass in certain photos may be an accident, but a happy one. The building allows both cats and dogs.

↑ It’s not too far from that Mid-Market building to 660 King, which sits at the very northern tip where SoMa meets the Design District and brushes up against Mission Creek. It’s a new building too—circa 2008—but the one-bedroom, one-bath loft for rent inside keeps a much lower profile, aesthetically speaking, favoring a whole lot of neutral earth tones and a whole lot of open space. The place is just over 1,000 square feet from top to bottom, rents for $3,700/month, and sadly excludes pets from the equation.

↑ From an openly and obviously modern side of San Francisco the listings turn to a very gold one: the Presidio, where San Francisco laid its first foundations, although of course this townhouse for rent on Pershing Drive is not quite so old as the base/park itself, dating to just 1953. The three-bed, one-bath spot is a quick trip to Baker Beach and the California Coastal Trail. And although the non-specific ad promises “some units have been updated to include new kitchens, baths, and eco-friendly fixtures,” there’s no word on whether or not this is one of those units. It’s $3,780/month, but no pets despite sitting in the middle of a park of remarkable proportions.

↑ Speaking of being old-fashioned, is there any neighborhood in San Francisco still so in love with classic red brick as Jackson Square (Market Street sidewalks notwithstanding)? Although the ad for this two bed, one bath apartment on Montgomery Street says that the old industrial building circa 1907 is “a fully remodeled vintage building.” The most recent building permits date to 2013. In any case, they make sure to still shows off the place’s old bones, even while renting for the thoroughly modern price of $3,750/month.

↑ Finally, there’s a one-bed, one-bath Nob Hill apartment in a beautifully sprawling corner Edwardian building from 1918 across the street from Huntington Park. It features gorgeous polished floors (wood and marble) on the first-story, with “private garden” included in need of a green thumb. No pets though, and it’s $3,750/month.