What $2,600 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? Today’s price: $2,600.

According to this ad, a professional dog walker in Glen Park is renting out the downstairs in-law unit so, of course, this rental does allow dogs. Cats are apparently another matter, unless a particularly persuasive fancier can convince the landlord to expand their professional profile. The home promotes some familiar merits like “newly renovated,” “open floor plan,” and “walk out into the garden,” plus a few slightly less common additions like a maple sideboard and clawfoot tub. Be warned that the renovation still left the kitchen without an oven. It’s one-bed, one-bath, and $2,500/month.

In practice a carriage house and an in-law are almost interchangeable, although the carriage house—like this one for rent in Lower Pac Heights—at least gets to brag its historic pedigree in contrast to the noveau in-laws in other neighborhoods. A carriage house, FYI, is the small structure where latter-day San Franciscans parked their carriages and horses, functionally equivalent to a garage and now often converted to an apartment, like this wintergreen one-bed, one-bath pad on Bush Street for $2,600/month. The space shares a garden with the associated duplex, allows cats but not dogs, and is clearly in love with parquet.

In-laws are often small and sometimes quite weird, but they do usually strive to capture a certain homey quality by proxy with their larger nearby residences. Microapartments, on the other hand, try to tap into the chicness of condo living while still keeping to a budget—or at least that’s the idea. The still-new building at 750 Harrison in SoMa craves the neutral aesthetic of big-money condos a little further down in North Beach, but the 350-square-foot proportions and $2,600/month asking price remind everyone where they are. The building does allow pets and sports a dog walking area as part of the amenities.

To find a larger home at this price potential renters must look further south to Crocker-Amazon. Or possibly to the Netherlands, given that this ad favors obfuscating Dutch angles that are liable to make some home hunters dizzy. Assuming you get your bearings, it’s a two-bed, one-bath flat on Winding Way advertised as a “huge 1,250 square feet” for $2,500/month. Original 1946 maple floors and deck included, but no word on whether pets are allowed.

Finally, in Ingleside near the city’s southern border, a little white two-bed, one-bath house on Randolph Street is also asking $2,500/month. But judging from the headline, it appears to be just a one-bedroom, one-bathroom place advertising its “usable basement” as a potential second bedroom. Of course, that basement—which at 600 square feet is equal to the size of the entire main home—might be a bit of a catch in itself, and after all not many people have basements in California.