Chart predicts the San Francisco Rent using 3 variables

[DG A.]

I found this awesome article:

https://medium.com/@andersem/a-guy-just-transcribe...

TLDR:

It’s a chart that almost perfectly predicts the San Francisco housing market using only three variables:

1. The number of jobs located in San Francisco County.
2. The number of places in San Francisco County for people to live.
3. The total amount of money that is paid to everyone who works jobs in San Francisco County.

What do y'all think about these as predictive variables for what direction rents are going?

[Carolina Solorzano]

I'll add my two cents here. I grew up in the Bay Area and moved for college to San Francisco. In 2005 my rent for a 2 bedroom 2 bath was $1800 in a non-rent controlled apartment building in Western Addition. The next year we got a letter from our landlord saying rent was going up to $2100, which forced us out. By that time I decided for work to move down to LA and returned within a few years. Jump forward to 2010, my then boyfriend and I moved in together to a rent controlled building into a junior one bedroom. We paid $1700 in rent for roughly 475 sq feet in the Lower Haight. By the time that we left that building two years later, rent had soared for the same space to about $2200. So, in a way I can testify that the data on the chart is true. 

Now don't get disappointed. I was able to buy a condo on a short sale in 2012, fixed it up with permits and sold for a profit three years later. It can be done, you just have to look for properties and know when you have a good deal.