One of his ads is a one-bedroom apartment with a remodeled kitchen and bathroom in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. It rents for $ 2,000 a month. That’s 25 percent less than last year. And, the first month is free. It has two units available in the eight-unit building on Washington Street.
“(They’re) 600-650 square feet. Nice classic apartments in San Francisco. At any other time, they would have been rented immediately,” Meyskens says.
Crystal Chen is an analyst at the Zumper rental website. She says 2020 was a year of unprecedented declining rents in the Bay Area.
RELATED: San Francisco rental prices fall 31% as residents move to more space, cheaper housing in the midst of a pandemic
According to Zumper, San Francisco had the biggest drop in a one-bedroom apartment nationwide. Rents have dropped 23%. Oakland is down 19% and 15% in San Jose.
“Tenants’ priorities really moved away from the amenities of big cities, such as nightlife and going out, and toward space and affordability, ”Chen explains.
But many predict that tenants will begin to return to the Bay Area in 2021, especially in cities like San Francisco. A lower rent means those who had a price before can’t afford to go back.
“I’ve spent the last ten years getting people to move from (San Francisco) to Oakland. And only in the last eight months have people moved from Oakland to San Francisco. It’s a change,” Meyskens says.
Chen hopes that even greater change will come this summer, once more people are vaccinated and life begins to return to “normalcy.”
RELATED: San Francisco sees record fall in rental prices amid a pandemic, according to Zumper data
“I definitely think there will be people moving to the city, I don’t think it’s nearly as expensive and crazy as it was before the pandemic,” Chen says.
On the contrary, there are current owners.
Falling rental prices and, with the still large number of vacancies, many are struggling.
RELATED: How does COVID-19 affect homes in the Bay Area? The expert weighs
The Bay Area Homeowners Network (BAHN) held a small car rally in the San Francisco Chinatown to protest the California eviction moratorium.
Jenny Zhao owns a number of condominiums in South Bay. She, her husband, lost her job due to the pandemic. With tenants paying, he says his family suffers.
“We have to pay mortgage, we have to maintain, we have to repair the buildings. So how do we survive?” says Zhao.
She says she understands the situation of many tenants given the pandemic, but says there needs to be more equity around the legislation.
Despite the difficulties on both sides, Meyskens remains optimistic.
“I think (San Francisco) is going to get better in the long run after all that, because I needed a recalibration. For everyone, in the long run, I think it’s going to be good,” he says.
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