Holy doggie do-do, Batman. San Diego reached another shocking milestone in the housing market. Average rents are higher than San Francisco and rank third among American cities. No wonder homelessness rises across the county. Crapola, this stinks—for us peons. Landlords likely feel differently, eh.
Zillow has the skinny in its June 2023 rental report, which observes that “the most expensive major market is San Jose, where typical monthly rent is $3,411, followed by the New York City metro area ($3,405), San Diego ($3,175), San Francisco ($3,168), and Boston ($3,045)”. Maybe you don’t see $7 as all that meaningful, but SF is notoriously known for being a pricey market for housing. Not San Diego.
Zillow report clincher:
This was the first month on record in which typical rents in San Diego exceeded those in San Francisco. On the eve of the pandemic, in February 2020, San Francisco rents were 29-percent higher than those in San Diego.
Chew on that, and I have previously explained what happened: High-tech workers fleeing Northern California during the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 work-from-anywhere migration brought enormous purchasing power that led to massive increases in prices to buy or rent residences. Do the math: The median annual income in San Diego is $66,536, while that, for example, at Google is $296,000. Buying or renting in San Diego was comparably affordable for San Francisco-area escapees, who have essentially turned this city into a satellite of the one from which they fled. Housing is one aspect. Crime and homelessness are among the others.
Presently, in my neighborhood of University Heights, monthly residential rentals range from $1,595 for a 275-square-foot studio to $5,550 for a 1,050-square-foot-house.
Let’s talk Featured Image, which I captured on Jan. 12, 2018, using iPhone X. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 20, 1/1000 sec, 28mm (film equivalent); 3:22 p.m. PST.