Ya but nobody is renting at $5650. Living costs and scarcity are a real problem, but more likely to be around $1300 to $2800 depending on area and size.
Not enough housing because next to no housing is being built, let alone construction anywhere near the rate required to meet demand.
Honestly, $120->150k gross (pessimistically ~$72->90k post-tax) doesn't go all that far when you're paying anywhere from $24,000 [if you're lucky] to $48,000 (or more) per year in rent.
Your right. For a typical 1 Bedroom unit, in the city, you would be looking in the $1500 ballpark, a 2 Bedroom unit closer to 2K. For a 3 Bedrooom unit, well good luck with that.
Even with the cost/affordability, the bigger problem is the lack of availability of rental units. The current vacancy rate in the city is at 0.8% and heading downwards.
The big problem seems to be the lack of affordable housing in the area - when I was looking for 1br apartments, none of them were under $2700 a month (plus 300+ for car parking), and they were all brand new luxury rooms.
Well, those houses being rented out seem to be in the range of ~$3000/week. That's what's nuts. There would be more people going that route if that price wasn't so high.
The first part sounds about right. The second part is definitely wrong. For $2900 you won't be able to afford even a 1BR (unless we're talking about place far out from the main parts of the city).
For instance, places around me in SoMa have 2BRs listed above $4,500.
That is really mind blowing to me. I just looked at the local rental website for my small town and the first 2 bedroom duplex I looked at had a nice yard and looked good on the inside and was only $900/month. That is in Canadian dollars too I may add. That $4550 would be about $6000 Canadian and you would have people begging you to move in if you agreed to pay them a portion of that.The highest rental I see on the site right now is about $1800Cad.
What do people normally count in cost of living? Utilities and services are fine, and groceries are easy to find reasonably priced. Transportation is fine.
So I think as others have mentioned, rent and house prices are the things climbing sharply. I know someone paying $900 for a room in a 3 person house, in a really great part of town (Division, for locals). I've heard studios go for well over $1000, and fill up fast. But really, you don't have to look very hard to find something cheap(er). Surrounding areas (with new access to light rail that goes down town) are reasonable.
I don't think it's really as bad as some people make it out to be, but it definitely is getting more expensive in town. I mean, that's the nature of the housing market recovery :)
If you get this down to around $5k I bet you'd have a much larger market of apartment dwellers such as myself. Any hope of getting there in the next few years?
So the market is being depleted of high-income people seeking rentals.
Across the bay, a month or two ago, a coworker saw an apartment in Uptown that astounded me. 4 bedrooms for $8500/mo. That's only $2125/mo per person, but you have to live with at least 3 other people to get that. Crazy.
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