Bay Area rents plummet?

Question

If you believe this article https://www.sfchronicle.com/bu... Bay Area rents are dropping like a rock. What are investors seeing? Im leased up until next year but for people who have units for rent are you seeing a significant drop?

Ana Marie B. · Answer

“Plummet” is such a harsh word. I just renewed a 12-month lease for a 3/1 SFH in South San Francisco for $3600/ mo. about 2 weeks ago. No issues thankfully.

I probably could have done a slight increase, but decided against it due to COVID-19.

Amit M. · Answer

Account Closed that article is click bait garbage imo. 1- zumper has crap data analysis (like Zillow’s zestimates- usually laughable garbage) 2- they are lumping in the high rents of new condo bldgs (with tons of hyped up amenities) with regular apartments, and the high end has fallen (at least in SF), but the bread and butter Apartments are same or a bit below their recent #’s.)

my2c

Account Closed · Answer

fake news. Perhaps the brand new Class A buildings in SF have fallen, but the majority of rents are still very strong.

Brian Garlington · Answer

Clickbait indeed. Those of us on the ground here in the Bay Area know differently.

COMMERCIAL real estate is certainly seeing rents go down, but residential real estate in San Francisco and the greater bay area does not seem to be going down. You have your "clickbait" rent strikers and bloggers.......but apparently that didn't affect the bay area anywhere near as much as what people feared when they wrote those click bait articles and posts.

Justin Thorpe · Answer

No rents are falling yet but it’s a great time to “SELL” an article like that. Put that in the same league as  “Death of the Office” articles OR other click baits.

I have renewed 2 leases at par this past 2 months. One could have moved up a tad but I have great tenants.

I also think that MORE young people will flock to SF in the next 12 month if they don’t have to commute to Mt View or Menlo Park everyday.

Matt R. · Answer

I could not read whole article without sub but I get the point. It is unprecedented as they mentioned and hard to say what happens next other than perhaps expect to reduce some rents for a bit/years. It is possible it may take years to get back to all time highs for rents. The remote type work could really hit demand for awhile.

Account Closed · Answer

@Anish Tolia Thanks all. I guessed that the report wasnt that credible so good to get on the ground info. I no longet live in the US so hard to know for sure.

Johnny Hoang · Answer

So many articles are misleading for the Bay Area rental prices and pricing in general. Haven’t seen much of a decline on my end but I rent my houses out by the room for the most part. I’ve found that to be pretty stable and definitely spreads my risk of vacancy. Filling rooms is easier to fill vs filling houses.

P Aggie · Answer

I wonder what this work-from-home trend means for markets like, say, Sacramento?1. Is it positive or negative for Sacramento?

2. Was the RE frothy in Sacramento already?

Curious. A newbie trying to get myself educated. I do think we are likely in a multi-year downward trend for RE in general, but want to arm myself for buying something down the road.

Bay Area rents plummet?

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