In San Jose, the median one-bedroom unit now stands at $2,680 per month, and the median two-bedroom unit is going for $3,330,
according to the latest report from Zumper.
DENISTANGNEYJR/GETTY
Story Highlights
- San Francisco rental prices surged 15.9% annually, fastest nationwide
growth. - National rental market declined over 2% while San Francisco
accelerated. - AI workers drove demand for San Francisco apartments and studios.
Competition for rentals has driven up prices in the Bay Area this year faster than
anywhere else in the nation.
San Francisco remained the fastest-growing rental market in the U.S. in
November, and notably the only city in the top 10 to post double-digit annual
gains, with one-bedroom rent up 15.9% annually and two-bedroom units up
14.8%, according to the latest rental report from San Francisco-based Zumper. In
San Francisco, the median one-bedroom unit now stands at $3,500 per month,
and the median two-bedroom unit is going for $4,880.
Silicon Valley is seeing more modest rent changes, with San Jose one-bedroom
rents increasing about 2%. The median one-bedroom unit now stands at $2,680
per month, and the median two-bedroom unit is going for $3,300.
Oakland was one city in the Bay Area that saw year-over-year declines for median
one-bedroom units, which now stand at $1,950. Two-bedroom units in Oakland,
however, tipped up about 1% to $2,620 per month.
San Francisco’s increases run counter to the national trend, which is a general
softening of the market compared with last year, according to Zumper.
Related: Bay Area rent soars: Menlo Park, Redwood City see 25% jump as tech
workers return to office
“Our National Rent Index shows one-bedroom rent down more than 2% year over
year, the steepest decline we’ve recorded since we started tracking national rent
data,” Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades said in a statement. “It’s a clear signal
that the cooling we’re seeing isn’t just seasonal. This pattern is playing out across
most of the country, with only a few outliers, like San Francisco, moving in the
opposite direction. It reflects a two-tiered economy and rental landscape: many
markets are slowing under softer labor conditions, while a small number of highwage hubs continue to accelerate.”
harley Goss, government and community affairs manager for the San Francisco
Apartment Association, said the SFAA’s most recent market survey of its propertyowning members revealed about a 5.5% year-over-year growth in median rents
and about 10% growth since November 2023. But what’s more interesting, Goss
said, was that there was less of a jump at the high end of the market, as the
cheapest apartments in each neighborhood have jumped a “pretty good amount.”
Goss said these price increases were the most pronounced in studio apartments
and one-bedroom units.
“This speaks to the hotness of the market overall,” Goss said. “It also speaks to the
fact that there’s a lot of demand right now.”
Goss also said that with respect to rent control in San Francisco, fewer tenants are
vacating older units. As a result, landlords aren’t benefiting from price increases
as much because there’s low turnover in those rent-controlled units mixed with
heightened expenses for the landlord such as insurance, repairs and utilities.
“Many of them aren’t seeing any of this hot rental market,” he said. “They’re not
raking in the money because the turnover is low right now.”
The new November data comes after Zumper reported last month that San
Francisco apartment rents in October for a two-bedroom apartment soared 17.6%
year over year, as highly paid AI workers sought the benefits of living and
working in the city. That was the biggest gain not only for any city in the nation in
October but also the highest growth rate for San Francisco since Zumper began
tracking the data almost a decade ago. San Francisco’s median rent for a onebedroom apartment in October rose 12.9%.
However, San Francisco rents were flat to declining slightly on a month-overmonth basis, which Zumper attributed to the start of a seasonal slowdown. San
Francisco’s one-bedroom median rent was flat, while two-bedroom median rent
slipped 1.2%. Similar weakness in month-over-month numbers was last seen
last winter.
New York still commands the nation’s most expensive median rents, with onebedrooms asking $4,330 and two-bedrooms at $5,080, though both of those
figures are marginally down from last year.
These are the highest-selling residential real
estate agents in the Bay Area in 2024
Gross volume of Bay Area sales closed in 2024
Rank Prior Rank Person
1 1 Rohde-Lynch, Shana
2 4 Chawla, Joujou
3 7 Grotte, Isabelle
