San Francisco has been called the most expensive place in the country to rent housing, and average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is now $2,673 a month.
It’s a source of frustration for many residence-seekers. A few weeks ago we shared horror stories by those upset over high prices and intense competition for Bay Area housing. Those stories spread quickly online, and we wondered who else wanted to publicize their tales of woe. We put the call out online and heard from Bay Area residents like San Franciscan Danielle Weintraub, currently looking for a bigger place in the city.
“I just got back today from looking at a small one-bedroom that is going for $2,100, no parking and no laundry,” she wrote. “It's a bit tough to really take in at times. On one hand you really want to start a new chapter in your life and get a bigger-nicer place to live because it's really the natural progression, though, on the other hand we feel that if we did pay that insane amount that we are really being taken for a ride.
“It makes for a challenging lifestyle,” she added. “Saving for retirement suffers, traveling becomes almost non-existent, and the overall stress of having to pay such a high rental fee will always be on the mind. How are couples able to move into larger units to start a family here?”
Emily Strawn of San Francisco is holding off on finding a bigger apartment for now. She noted she and her boyfriend “looked for months, standing in lines at open houses, taking time off work to be the first person with an application in hand, and anxiously waiting by the phone for that call that never seemed to come.
Finally, we found a place that we thought was the one. It was a large one bedroom in a great neighborhood. Later that night, we got a call from a cantankerous old man who said he was rejecting our application because we had a cat. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I know I said the apartment was pet friendly, but I've got a dozen other couples just like you who want the place and don't have animals. Sorry.’ I cried. Was it a lost cause?
After picking ourselves back up, we continued the hunt. Eventually we found a small but charming one-bedroom just up the street from the site of our defeat. Sometimes we dream of a bigger place, with a yard, with parking, or without crazy neighbors, but until we can afford to buy our own home, we're staying put.”
But if it’s so challenging to find housing, why live in the Bay Area at all?