Bay Area Rents Still Not at Pre-Pandemic Levels
I consider myself forever fortunate; I was one of those middle-of-the-road earners who took advantage of “pandemic pricing” to secure a 160-square-foot domicile of my own; apartment prices in areas synonymous with techies (read: SoMa and FiDi) and creative newcomers to San Francisco (read: the Tenderloin and Polk Gulch) dropped by some 30%, on average, by the end of 2020. But when compared to other rental markets in the county, a new report from Zumper shows that the Bay Area’s rent is the only of any large metropolis in the country to not hit their pre-pandemic levels. Of all the metropolitan areas where rent went into freefall after the pandemic began in March 2020, the Bay Area remains the only one on both coasts where rent hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels — especially in East Bay cities, like Oakland.
