These San Francisco neighborhoods boom as rents skyrocket

It’s not all doom loop for San Francisco. Two neighborhoods on opposite sides of the city are booming, rent data from Zumper’s latest report shows.

San Francisco keeps its dubious third-place crown among the most expensive rental markets in the country, falling behind Jersey City and New York City as the costliest place to rent. Boston has slipped to the fourth-most expensive place to rent, a change from October of last year, when Boston took the second-place podium.

San Francisco’s one-bedroom median rent of $3,040 is 15% lower than the pre-pandemic median rent recorded in February 2020 and flat compared with the median rent over a year ago, according to Zumper.

Of the 45 neighborhoods Zumper examined, median one-bedroom rent is down year-over-year in 27 neighborhoods, down in 14 and flat in four. The neighborhood with the sharpest year-over-year decline in SoMa: At $3,010, its one-bedroom median is down 13.75% over last year and down a whopping 25.5% compared with pre-pandemic data, Zumper said.

But the National Rent Report, published Tuesday, shows the Outer Sunset and Dogpatch neighborhoods are seeing heightened interest from renters—pushing costs up.

“A closer look at San Francisco shows seeds of recovery and a city that’s slowly but surely reinventing itself,” said Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades. “Downtown and nearby neighborhoods like SoMa and Tenderloin are still struggling, but San Francisco’s ingenuity and vitality are on full display in neighborhoods like Dogpatch and Outer Sunset.”

The Dogpatch is now the city’s most expensive neighborhood, with the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment at $3,790, marking a 7.7% increase since last year.

The report goes on to say it expects rents to keep going up as the city plans new homes, hotels, stores and waterfront space at the former Potrero Power Station, a coal-burning power plant that shut down in 2011.

The Dogpatch has been called the city’s “coolest” neighborhood by some media outlets, who point to the neighborhood’s many restaurants and the newly opened Institute of Contemporary Art.

Marcella’s Lasagneria owner Gianfranco Di Sciullo has lived in Dogpatch for over 30 years. Di Sciullo said he is unsure how an influx of wealthy residents will affect his restaurant but said the pace of Dogpatch development has been remarkable.

“It’s constant change,” Di Sciullo said. “They’ve done nothing but redevelop for the past 10 years.”

While the Outer Sunset’s rents have spiked 10.3% since last year, Zumper said it’s still seen as one of the city’s more affordable neighborhoods and has had 95% more people asking about apartments there compared with last year. Average one-bedroom rents in the neighborhood are $2,580 as of July, according to Zumper.

The New York Times described the neighborhood as thriving while San Francisco’s Downtown struggles to recover from the pandemic, thanking the car-free Great Highway, the local food scene and the area’s laid-back vibe.

Sunset Cantina manager Danny Tasker said the Outer Sunset is a friendly neighborhood and that business has been good because of his restaurant’s proximity to the beach and the pleasant weather.

“It’s beautiful out here,” Tasker said. “It’s a very welcoming neighborhood.”