What $3,100 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: $3,100.

Here’s a piece of baroque Edwardian decadence by way of the Haight at Central Avenue and Page Street. This top-floor, one-bed, one-bath unit is up for rent for $3,100 per month. The home sports “five large bay windows with street view and abundant natural light” plus “brand new laminate flooring in living room and kitchen” and a “fully remodeled bathroom” along with a new kitchen. “Vintage tile restored in kitchen,” the ad notes, said vintage apparently being 1905, as that’s the date on file for the building with the Planning Department. The place measures just over 640 square feet, and the lease says no dogs but cats are okay.

Meanwhile, the bottom floor inside this colorful Outer Richmond building on 38th Avenue can be yours for $2,999 per month. Thanks to Google, we can see that eight years ago this circa-1924 setup was once a perfectly unremarkable looking hue, with the double-decker pallet being a recent addition. On the inside, the place is all business coming in at two beds, one bath, and 725 square feet. According to the most recent building permits for this address, the renovation happened in 2015 and was done to legalize the previously clandestine unit. Speaking of playing things close to the vest, the ad notes “pets may be considered, but not a guarantee.”

This Tenderloin apartment has a proposition for renters: “Fall in love with Mr. Hyde.” Yes, this building is on Hyde Street. “Mister Hyde” is also the name of the salon next door, but presumably that’s not quite what they meant. The circa-1926 building sports a beautiful, cyan-tinged entryway, but the apartment itself comes with mostly standard white interiors and hardwood floors, along with “vintage charm with high ceilings.” “Elegance without pretense” is the selling point in the ad, which is an intriguing gambit for a Tenderloin building. The promise of rent control, on the other hand, is very much in the style of the neighborhood; in this case the controlled sum is $2,995 per month for one bed and one bath. Since this is the Tenderloin, both cats and dogs are allowed.

This charcoal and blue building on Harrison Street in SoMa set back from its neighbors looks comparably muted. But the landlord promises “high coved ceilings, picture moldings, and bay windows,” along with the combo of “freeway nearby but no freeway noise”—in this case “nearly” means less than 100 square feet to the Dwight D. Eisenhower highway. Despite the promise, possible renters should be prepared to really like Ike, as odds are they’ll hear from it sooner or later. Both cats and dogs are okay here. The flat is two beds and one bath. The price is $3,100 per month for 1,100 squee feet.

The slate closes out in the Mission with a “remodeled and refurnished” flat in a mint green Victorian on Harrison Street that hearkens back to 1900 (or perhaps older—the city often uses 1900 as a placeholder date for pre-1906 buildings whose records were destroyed). “This is a fully furnished, charming, quiet, and newly remodeled two bedroom in-law flat [...] on the ground level of a beautiful Victorian home in the heart of the Mission,” with one bath for $3,000 per month. No words on pets. Note that the Department of Building Inspection’s permit records date the remodel to 2009.