by Aaron Glantz, The Bay Citizen
Although rents are soaring and demand for rental units is growing, developers are not building many new apartments, condominiums or homes in the Bay Area, according to a new report.The region added 6,382 housing units between April 2010 and July 2011, an increase of just 0.2 percent, newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show.
Counties that are home to such cities as Fargo, N.D., Cicero, Ind., and Rock Hill, S.C., all added more housing units than Santa Clara County, the home of Silicon Valley.
The result, analysts said, is that in San Francisco, the Peninsula and the South Bay rents are rising as new workers at social media companies like Facebook and Twitter power a second Internet boom.
“The boom in high-quality, technology-related jobs is driving higher rents in the apartment and multifamily business,” said Stephen Duffy, managing director for Moss Adams Capital, a real estate investment firm.
“These people, mostly 18 to 34 years old, prefer to rent rather than buy,” he said.