Resurgent demand and a low vacancy rate is driving up rents in San Francisco despite national rent prices dropping by 1 percent since last year.
San Francisco rents rose by 12 percent between September 2024 and September 2025, a bigger jump than any other city and the national average, which actually decreased by 1 percent in the same period. Neighboring Oakland and San Jose saw rent hikes of 3 percent.
Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Leonard explains the numbers, and how it got this way. Leonard notes that “Rents are still down 1% from September 2019, just a few months before the pandemic triggered a massive drop in prices as renters left for other cities.”
Today, vacancy rates are low, construction is slow, and rentals in the city are going fast. According to Apartment List, rentals are leasing more than a week faster than they were a year ago, putting renters under more pressure and making it harder to price shop.
Meanwhile, “While the Bay Area has seen incomes grow since the pandemic, they’re actually below their pre-pandemic heights when adjusted for inflation, meaning even more of the city’s lower- and middle-income families could get priced out of the city.”
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