How tough is it to get an apartment in SF/East Bay right now? (San Francisco: sublet, apartments) - San Francisco - Oakland - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

mayorhaggar · 07-04-2010, 02:34 PM

I'm thinking seriously about moving to a new apartment, I actually have a nice and affordable studio in SF but it is next to a very noisy nightclub that seems to get louder every week and it's driving me insane.

Anyway, I'm curious to see how hard it will be to get a new housing situation of any kind. My budget will be kind of low, like $700-900 a month, and a studio would be nice but they are hard to get for that price, so living with roommates would be ok if it's a good area. Most parts of SF would be ok but I'm also thinking about downtown Berkeley so I could enjoy the slightly warmer weather, though the upcoming school year no doubt makes getting an apartment there tougher. I do not own a car and I work in downtown SF so somewhere either in SF or in the burbs in a walkable area near BART is essential.

Anyway, last time when I was looking for an apartment it was around August to October 2007 and it was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE. In the 6 years I've lived in SF I've never seen it so hard to find an apartment or roommates. I wanted to live with roommates, and replied to dozens and dozens of craigslist ads, and never got any replies except for a few people who never called me back after meeting me. In the past when I'd done this 90% of people would actually respond and set up a meeting. Eventually I started looking at studios too because the landlords would just have open house showings so you could actually meet them. I must have been to 30 showings and all of them were complete bedlam with up to 40 people standing around a tiny studio clamoring to apply. I left my credit report and references, and never got any replies. I finally lucked into the place I have now only because I showed up 2nd in line for the viewing. Soon after I showed up probably 50 people showed up for the viewing as well, and the landlord gave it to me just because I was early. I thought maybe it was just me, but I saw an SF Chronicle article saying that the rental market in SF was completely crazy and nobody was able to get an apartment at all. I'm sure that the new school year made it a little tougher especially in August, but as it got to be late September and then October there was still no let up in the demand for apartments.

Anyway I am wondering if it's still like this even with this bad economy. Are any of you folks that are apartment hunting finding it to be so tough, or is it more easy going than I described? It is always hard to find an apartment in the Bay Area but like I said it was much harder in late 2007.

jade408 · 07-05-2010, 04:14 PM

Berkeley is not warm. It is maybe 2 degrees hotter than SF and only moderately sunnier. There is a big breeze that makes it chilly. Downtown Berkeley is also pretty expensive.

Your best bet is closer to Macarthur BART in Temescal or Piedmont Ave in Oakland. (Both are safe and convenient to BART (or a transbay bus) depending on which side you live. General boundaries: Macarthur and North and Webster and East to around Santa Clara or so. If you are west of Piedmont Ave, you might want to be above 40th as there is some Kaiser construction on MacArthur and Piedmont Ave and the surrounding blocks.

Transbay bus is about a 20-25 minute ride to downtown.

mayorhaggar · 07-05-2010, 06:07 PM

Well again I don't have a car so being near public transit and a BART station is important, also it has to be somewhere walkable so I can get to the grocery store, go shopping etc without having to walk 2 miles to anything. Downtown Berkeley would be nice but yeah it does look like there aren't many places there and not many studios in my price range, I might need to live with roommates, fortunately though sublet rooms look much cheaper than in SF. I know that tons of students from UCB will be looking for places around Berkeley so it will be hard. I'm also going to look for roommates in SF, but again mainly I'm just wondering how much competition there is for apartments in SF and Berkeley and if it's as crazy as it was in late 2007 and whether anyone on craigslist will ever return my email inquiries.

calisnuffy · 07-05-2010, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

Well again I don't have a car so being near public transit and a BART station is important, also it has to be somewhere walkable so I can get to the grocery store, go shopping etc without having to walk 2 miles to anything. Downtown Berkeley would be nice but yeah it does look like there aren't many places there and not many studios in my price range, I might need to live with roommates, fortunately though sublet rooms look much cheaper than in SF. I know that tons of students from UCB will be looking for places around Berkeley so it will be hard. I'm also going to look for roommates in SF, but again mainly I'm just wondering how much competition there is for apartments in SF and Berkeley and if it's as crazy as it was in late 2007 and whether anyone on craigslist will ever return my email inquiries.

Have you considered the peninsula? Caltrains, to Muni, longer than living in the city, however the housing situation here is not exactly dire, you should not have problem finding roomates.

mayorhaggar · 07-05-2010, 07:35 PM

Again I don't have a car and the Peninsula is waaay too suburban and sprawly for me.

I know what neighborhoods I'm interested in, I just want to know how hard it is to get an apartment in general.

clongirl · 07-05-2010, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

Again I don't have a car and the Peninsula is waaay too suburban and sprawly for me.

I know what neighborhoods I'm interested in, I just want to know how hard it is to get an apartment in general.

I wouldn't think so...I've seen a lot of vacancy signs and such (I'm in Lamorinda). My good guess is that plenty of people are moving out and moving on in the region and you won't have any problems whatsoever.

I've lived through really bad rental times in San Francisco (back when you'd have to literally bribe landlords to stand out amongst the hundreds of equally desperate prospective tenants) but that was ALWAYS during economic booms, not busts, like now.

Chrysopylae · 07-05-2010, 09:09 PM

A month ago one of my nieces secured her first apartment, a downtown/Nob Hill studio. Between my advice on the cost of San Francisco housing and with her parents approving or disapproving each site. I was stunned when she and her schoolmate with whom she will share the space were approved despite the fact one of them doesn't even have a job. I had already gotten over the shock of how easy it was to locate places compared to what it was like when I was searching back in the day. There is a lot of supply in the market right now and I think you will find a lot easier than in 2007. Your price range may not have a lot of choices, but from what my niece and one other friend experienced, you won't have too much competition.

mayorhaggar · 07-06-2010, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysopylae

A month ago one of my nieces secured her first apartment, a downtown/Nob Hill studio. Between my advice on the cost of San Francisco housing and with her parents approving or disapproving each site. I was stunned when she and her schoolmate with whom she will share the space were approved despite the fact one of them doesn't even have a job. I had already gotten over the shock of how easy it was to locate places compared to what it was like when I was searching back in the day. There is a lot of supply in the market right now and I think you will find a lot easier than in 2007. Your price range may not have a lot of choices, but from what my niece and one other friend experienced, you won't have too much competition.

Thanks for the anecdotal information, which is what I was looking for.

I am hoping it will indeed be pretty easy going. I was planning on moving to NYC and getting a new job and new life in August but it seems like the economy is terrible there like everywhere else, so I am going to sit tight here and wait to see if things improve.

Radical347 · 07-06-2010, 01:58 AM

700-900 with roommates will get you into most areas of SF. It's much easier to find housing than it was three years ago. We've rented rooms out in the house for the past few years (posted on craigslist), and have seen the # of replies each fall WAY down, even without raising the price.

austintilelady · 07-06-2010, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysopylae

A month ago one of my nieces secured her first apartment, a downtown/Nob Hill studio. Between my advice on the cost of San Francisco housing and with her parents approving or disapproving each site. I was stunned when she and her schoolmate with whom she will share the space were approved despite the fact one of them doesn't even have a job. I had already gotten over the shock of how easy it was to locate places compared to what it was like when I was searching back in the day. There is a lot of supply in the market right now and I think you will find a lot easier than in 2007. Your price range may not have a lot of choices, but from what my niece and one other friend experienced, you won't have too much competition.

Question? Is it normal that three people would be living in a studio apartment in San Francisco?