The Latest in Paperless Technology
This list doesn’t mean the rents are cheap; it just means they’re cheaper than the costs to buy, which are exorbitant (especially the California metro areas). The percentage is the percent difference between the median cost to buy and the median cost to rent.
For the seventh straight month, rents in the San Francisco metro area declined. In the East Bay,Contra County saw rents drop 4.9% over last August while Alameda County rents were down 4.5%.
Analysts attributed in increase in housing supply – particularly in Berkeley – as a strong factor in the declining rents.
However, its important to remember that Bay Area rents are still very high and out of reach of many low-income residents.
For the first time since the pandemic – yes, 2020 – rents dropped 0.5% year over year in May in the 50 largest metro areas according to realtor.com. And, while the forecast for the remainder of 2023 is a modest 0.9% decrease, it is certainly welcome relief for many renters.
Moreover, it’s anticipated that more rental units will be available this year and next as would-be buyers wait out the housing market.
According to a recent Redfin analysis, the monthly cost of homeownership in the Bay Area is twice as expensive for the same home. In San José the rate is 165%, San Francisco is 139% and Oakland is 99%. San José’s rate is the highest in the country.
Nationally, the rate is 25% with 19% of all properties being cheaper to buy than to rent.
A new report by realtor.com lists the metro areas where it’s cheaper to rent than to buy and the San Francisco / Oakland / Hayward area finished second nationwide as it’s 97 percent cheaper to rent a starter home.
Specifically, median rent for a starter home in the Bay Area is $2,943 and the monthly cost to buy is $5,798.
Not surprisingly the San Jose / Sunnyvale / Santa Clara area finished 4th with a rent-to-0buy difference of 83 percent.
San Francisco and Bay Area rents continue to decline at a rate faster than the national average. Rents in San Francisco in December fell 1.1 percent% to $2,174 per month.
Currently San Francisco and San José are the only two metro areas with populations over 1 million that have rents lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Analysts cite the ongoing tech layoffs as having a major impact on rentals.
In a bit of good news for some East Bay renters, a federal judge has ruled that COVID-era protections against evictions in Alameda County can stay in place – at least, for now.
Alameda County – including the city of Oakland – are one of only two Bay Area counties that still have protections in place. Landlords sued to have the protections removed but the judge said the ordinances were temporary and didn’t exempt renters from the obligation to pay rent.
In Bay Area counties where the protection has been lifted with over 6,300 evictions being served between July 2021 and June 2022.
According to SmartAsset, the Bay Area has three of the top five cities wi the highest price-to-rent ratios in the country. Any ratio above 21 means that renting is generally advantageous. San José has a ratio of 42.2; San Francisco is 37.3 and Oakland stands at 32.
Of course, this is only one indicator and individual circumstances vary such as income, available downpayment, and how long one plans on staying in the home.
