Residential rents increased by 3.7 percent in March compared to last year period, the Associated Press reported, citing data from Zillow.
But in San Francisco, home rental prices are skyrocketing, posting a 14.8 percent which is four times greater than the national rent hike, noted AP.
The Bay Area has always been a high rental market. Using Zumper's data, Curbed said the median monthly rental for a one-bedroom apartment within the Bay Area is $3460 in February. The following month, Zumper revealed that it slightly decreased to $3400, yet continues to be the leading rental market for the straight 10 months already.
Average rents of more than $3000 in San Francisco, would still be $600 more than the LA's rent, $800 greater than NYC's and around $1,000 above the Washington, D.C. area's rentals, explained Los Angeles Times.
Associated Press added that the "influx of tech money" caused San Francisco's rental rates to go higher. In January, Santa Cruz Sentinel informed that venture capitalists spent billions into San Francisco-based companies, citing a report from CB Insights, a research firm that tracks venture capital. "A lot of these companies, now they are putting up their headquarters in San Francisco. I don't think that's that surprising that San Francisco is pulling ahead as the leader," said Matthew Wong, a CB Insights analyst.
San Francisco is the least affordable in the largest markets in the country, based from the Mortgage Affordability Report of Realtor.com. Indeed, affordable housing has been a growing concern for the city but recently, City Mayor Ed Lee started a project for the homeless to alleviate the problem. Mayor Lee launched a pilot program in March using an abandoned school at 16th and Mission Street to become the Navigation Center with a goal of channeling the homeless to decent housing in 10 days, CBS San Francisco reported.
Aside from San Francisco, the surrounding metro of San Jose posted a double-digit increase of 12.3 percent, while areas such as Denver, Kansas City, and Nashville showed a rise of more than 8.5 percent, as mentioned by LA Times. The news site reasoned that most of these cities had an increase "demand for apartments and rentals" and with the areas' limited supply, the rental prices begin to shoot up. Southern California rents were reportedly steeper at 5.3% at the Los Angeles and Orange County areas while in Inland Empire, the rise was at 4.5%. Meanwhile, rental rates decreased in some large areas like Chicago, New Orleans and Rochester, New York, the outlet added.
