What $2,400 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: $2,400.

Rest assured, comparing apartments at $2,400/month isn’t a contest to discover the smallest homes available in San Francisco. But it does end up developing in that direction by default. Case in point, this “brand new studio two blocks from Twitter Plaza” in SoMa. The new building entices renters with shared spaces like “rooftop lounge with pool table, foosball, fire pits, and grill stations,” as well as a courtyard lounge featuring an entertainment center and “sundeck with chaise lounge chairs,” but the home itself is a bit of a squeeze at 380 square feet. Note that the perks do include pets.

Compare the former to this apartment located a few blocks away at the edge of the Tenderloin—the ad tries to deem this block as also part of “SoMa,” but being north of Market is an automatic disqualified for that neighborhood (hence the name)—where the Book Concern building is again looking to book new renters. This time it’s $2,400/month for an apartment measuring a mere 264 square feet. Remarkably, it billed itself as a single-bed, single-bath home rather than a studio. The ad also neglects to bring up pets.

And speaking of skipped precedents, the Cubix building further east in SoMa usually puts its 300-feet-or-less floor plan numbers out in the open, unambiguously defining their studios as “micro homes.” But this particular ad is mum about the measurements. This second-floor studio lists “tons of track lighting,” “radiant heated concrete floors,” “large windows and balcony,” and rooftop lounge to the tune of $2,350/month. This pad is also pet-friendly—besides, cats and dogs will appreciate those heated floors more than human renters.

Is it actually easy being green? Hopefully, because this “cozy and quaint cottage” in Portola is green to the gills and beyond, seeking even more greenery at $2,400/month for a 600-square-foot, one-bed, one-bath home near the Portola Recreation Center. Rather than new and renovated, the ad here simply highlights “newer carpeting” and “newer paint” on top of “newer appliances”—maybe such things are in the eye of the beholder. “Pets negotiate with deposit.”

And finally, we close with a bifurcated building in the Haight on Stanyan Street, right near that crook where the panhandle meets the edge of the park proper. “Built in 1928, this beautiful set of brick and stucco twin buildings is joined by a quiet garden courtyard,” notes the ad, which plays up the place’s alleged “Mediterranean flair that sets it apart from the Victorians.” This studio is a top-floor unit overlooking a courtyard for $2,400/month. “Sorry, no pets.”