"Tech boom causing rising SF rents" (San Jose, San Francisco: foreclosed, rental)

[Doctor Blues]

Originally Posted by sjnative

Oh, grow up.

For-profit corporations aren't a public service who exist for their love of their fellow man.

You would really have them make decisions based on socially charitable intent?

Corporations' obligations are to their stockholders and legally to governments under whose jurisdicitons they operate.

Then expect blood in the streets, that's what this will cause eventually.

OR GROW UP AND REALIZE MONEY IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS SOCIAL FABRIC.

I doubt if you can.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by lucillenyc

Anybody know what is happening to rents in Oakland? I want to move to a bigger place when my lease is up and am considering the East Bay. I love where I live (Mission Dolores), but rent is going up like crazy here. I saw studios advertised for $1800 in January a few blocks from me. Now those studios are going for $2200. A 20% increase in 6 months!

The shiny new Uptown (downtown Oakland) buildings seem to be going up in price -- $1500 for a studio in a new building with a doorman/pool/washer/dryer. Other areas are also increasing, but are still doable.

For example, in the Piedmont Ave area 1 bedrooms are around $1000-$1100 these days. Piedmont Ave is a nice/quiet neighborhood with good transit access (but it can be up to a mile from BART depending on which part you live in) and amenities. It is about 1 mile from downtown Oakland, 1-1.5 from Rockridge, 1 mi from the Lake, and a 15-20 minute transit ride from Downtown SF.

The Grand Lake or Adam's Point areas are 10-20% cheaper, but less transit friendly (the buses don't run that frequently, you'd need to factor in walking about .5-1mi for more frequent bus service. Generally, if you have a car, places include parking or parking is a fairly cheap add-on. Carsharing services are easy to find as well. Street parking isn't easy, but far easier than the Mission. Rockridge is a great area of town, but has limited options for apartment rentals.

Where do you work? What sort of neighborhood/amenities are you looking for?

[dmode]

Originally Posted by sjnative

Oh, grow up.

For-profit corporations aren't a public service who exist for their love of their fellow man.

You would really have them make decisions based on socially charitable intent?

Corporations' obligations are to their stockholders and legally to governments under whose jurisdicitons they operate.

That's the kind of shallow thinking that is destroying this country. Business is all about profits and investors - very well then, the results are out - the last decade has been the slowest growth in jobs ever in the US. GDP growth and employment growth was struggling way before the recession and will continue to do so with such short term thinking.

Some of the most successful companies globally are very well integrated with their societies and they have done exceedingly well. They have used layoff as the last tool for improving margins, they have used other creative means - shorter work weeks, furloughs, internal rotations etc to cut G&A costs but did not lay off people.

[lucillenyc]

Thanks for your reply. I work from home, so commuting isn't a concern. I was just curious if Oakland is affected by the same factors that are causing rent to raise in SF? I understand rents are going up everywhere because of the housing market, but are they increasing in Oakland because of the tech boom too, like in SF?

Originally Posted by jade408

The shiny new Uptown (downtown Oakland) buildings seem to be going up in price -- $1500 for a studio in a new building with a doorman/pool/washer/dryer. Other areas are also increasing, but are still doable.

For example, in the Piedmont Ave area 1 bedrooms are around $1000-$1100 these days. Piedmont Ave is a nice/quiet neighborhood with good transit access (but it can be up to a mile from BART depending on which part you live in) and amenities. It is about 1 mile from downtown Oakland, 1-1.5 from Rockridge, 1 mi from the Lake, and a 15-20 minute transit ride from Downtown SF.

The Grand Lake or Adam's Point areas are 10-20% cheaper, but less transit friendly (the buses don't run that frequently, you'd need to factor in walking about .5-1mi for more frequent bus service. Generally, if you have a car, places include parking or parking is a fairly cheap add-on. Carsharing services are easy to find as well. Street parking isn't easy, but far easier than the Mission. Rockridge is a great area of town, but has limited options for apartment rentals.

Where do you work? What sort of neighborhood/amenities are you looking for?

[jade408]

Originally Posted by lucillenyc

Thanks for your reply. I work from home, so commuting isn't a concern. I was just curious if Oakland is affected by the same factors that are causing rent to raise in SF? I understand rents are going up everywhere because of the housing market, but are they increasing in Oakland because of the tech boom too, like in SF?

Sure, rents are going up everywhere, but Oakland has far more moderately priced areas than most other Bay Area cities. Demand is also slightly less cyclical here. Berkeley has the student rush. SF has the "buzz" of young people and tech workers. Oakland's economy is more balanced. I know lots of non-profit workers, healthcare people, and much fewer tech people that live in Oakland. So things aren't changing as much, but rents are increasing. You won't find a concerted tech company boom, simply because there are less tech workers that live in Oakland, and it is a pretty crappy commute to much of Silicon Valley. (Oakland has a few native tech companies...but they wouldn't have a huge impact on the rental market.)

I'd say come on over, Oakland's a great place to live.

[HockeyMac18]

Another interesting artice talking about this topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/te...bust.html?_r=1

[mayorhaggar]

This has to be a bubble in the making, question is when it will burst or if the prosperity of tech (which requires little manpower considering the profits they can make) will trickle out to other sectors of the local economy. Rapidly rising rents don't benefit anyone if our wages aren't going up.

[mini_cute]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

This has to be a bubble in the making, question is when it will burst or if the prosperity of tech (which requires little manpower considering the profits they can make) will trickle out to other sectors of the local economy. Rapidly rising rents don't benefit anyone if our wages aren't going up.

I think restaurants are benefiting from the tech boom. New restaurants are able to open now supported by a larger, spendier customer base.

Also all those food trucks are able to charge $8 for a sandwich because the tech workers with their extra disposable income are able to pay that price.

Grocery chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joes are also benefiting because they sell food items that are generally higher quality but pricier which well paid techies can afford. Whole Foods and Trader Joes are actually expanding. This is good for the people employed by these companies as they are usually paid a better wage and given health insurance.

All of these bode well for reducing unemployment. As for wages not going up, well at least people who would normally be paid a low wage working at a minimum wage job now have more opportunities to get jobs with better pay at Whole Foods, Trader Joes and the like.

Hopefully all of this points to the continued creation of better paying service jobs so that regular folks can earn a good keep.

[alexxiz]

More of the Mordor army of semi-humans ("tech professionals") are coming to the Bay... local yuppies, hurry up wash your car and get that latest smartphone you don't want to look like some 2nd hand losers.

[illcosby]

I just wanted to comment on Vancouver, as some posters have been making comparisons to Vancouver all over this forum. In Canada, you cannot build until you sell 70% of the units, as a result most condos in Canadian cities are foreign owned investment properties purchased on the cheap. Joe Homebuyer is left with inferior units at exorbitant rates trying to navigate what is certainly a bubble. I'm not sure these regulations are the same in SF, our property values are artificially inflated. Some people are getting rich, some are going to lose their shirts in a few years, and the result of our condo acts is the ugliness you see all over Cdn cities' waterfronts. Toronto right now has more condos, period, than anywhere in North America because the regulations during pre-sales make it very easy to turn a quick profit. Condos built during Toronto's first boom in the late 70s/80s are much better than what we're getting now, which is shoddy, pre-fab construction with plate glass falling onto pedestrians on a near-weekly basis. I hope the same doesn't happen in SF.