What $4,300 rents you in SF 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: $4,300.

Rental ads in SF love the word “sunny,” as it’s a vague but positive adjective that can apply to any home that gets any amount of natural light. But credit to this one-bed, two-bath SoMa loft for at least sporting an actual design feature that might qualify the term via two enormous banks of windows converging in this corner unit. The ad also notes that, among other things, Jefferson Airplane once used the place as a studio, and during the previous century, the fire department stabled their horses here. Pets are “considered,” and it’s $4,300 per month.

The “huge windows” are also a selling point at this competing loft at 77 Dow Place at the edge of South Beach. The ad promises an open floor plan and “soaring high ceilings” for this circa-2002 loft, demanding $4,250 per month for one bed, one and a half bath, and 1,000-plus square feet. The horizontal stripes and hexagonal tile mirror are not standard in the building, but do appear in at least some of the other units. Pets are go here.

Color can be such an elusive quality in a home. Depending on the lighting and your point of view, this Outer Richmond Victorian Clement Street, decked out in green hues with gold trim, could invoke an almost Oz-like sense of spectacle and majesty—or maybe it resembles a jar of pickles. Eye of the beholder and all that. The interiors play it more straight, with neutral colors and hardwood floors; the flat comes in at three beds and one and a half baths. And for those chiefly concerned about the color of money, the price is $4,250 per month. No pets.

In SF rental parlance, a cottage is seemingly any smaller residence that shares a lot with a main house—but the connotations of the term are potentially deceptive, as a cottage can be quite a helping of real estate in its own right. In this case, it’s a freestanding two-story setup in the Inner Sunset near Fifth Avenue featuring two beds, two baths, and over 1,100 square feet. Note that the upper floor does have tapered ceilings in the bedrooms. There’s also a patio with garden, and the landlords say the will consider pets—they have a cat and a dog already, so renters presumably have a leg (four legs?) up on the negotiation. It’s $4,300 “or best offer.”

Last up, a full single-family house in Parkside near Taraval with three beds and one bath for $4,200, complete with barrel front. There is a referenced kitchen remodel, but evidently it spared the wallpaper in the nearby breakfast nook. The ad promises that the hardwood flooring found throughout the home is new. And the fireplace is actually still working. How refreshing. No mention here of pets.