SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The pandemic impacts have finally knocked San Francisco out of the number one spot for most expensive rent in the United States.
This is according to an August 2021 Zumper report, which says New York has risen to being more expensive for renting than San Francisco for the first time since the company started tracking this type of data in 2014.
The chart shows New York City’s median one-bedroom rent rate at $2,810. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s median rate for a one-bedroom is just slightly lower at $2,800.
Then comes Boston ($2,300), San Jose ($2,200), and Washington, D.C. ($2,160) to round out the top five most expensive cities to rent.
Zumper says San Francisco and NYC were initially hit hardest by the pandemic as people moved out during lockdown, but San Francisco still held the lead – until now.
Researchers credit the tech workers who are unwilling to return to Fog City as office reopening for major tech employers like Google and Apple become delayed due to the surging COVID-19 delta variant.
“Tech workers make up a disproportionate share of residents in the city, and tech companies are more likely to have adopted broad or permanent work-from-home policies. This allows those workers to live anywhere they want, and many of them have decided they don’t want to live in San Francisco,” the Zumper report says.
Nationwide, the median rent for a one-bedroom is up 9.2% since the second quarter of 2020, and overall, Zumper says rent is accelerating at an “alarming” rate.