When New York City overtook San Francisco as the most expensive city to rent an apartment in August 2021, it marked the first time that any significant metro cost more than SF since Zumper began tracking rental data in 2014.
Just over a year later, San Francisco has dropped once more, becoming the third most expensive city to rent in, according to new Zumper data.
With a median price of $3,060 for a one-bedroom apartment, Boston is now the second most expensive city to rent an apartment. The East Coast city saw a 5.9% increase in prices last month, while most major cities saw a decrease. Even though it fell by more than 2% last month, New York City remains the most expensive city, with a median one-bedroom price of $3,860.
San Francisco’s median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,020, a 4.6% decrease from September. San Francisco rents are still far below pre-pandemic levels, with this month’s one-bedroom median rent 13.7% lower than in February 2020.
According to Zumper, neighboring San Jose is the fourth most expensive city for renters, with a median rent for a one-bedroom apartment of $2,600.
“Bay Area rent prices were already among the highest in the country before the pandemic. While inflation in rent prices in the Bay was real, it was not as much as the rest of the country due to already high prices, and migration flows were more outflows than inflows,” a Zumper spokesperson wrote in an email.
Six California cities are among the top ten most expensive in the country, which is not surprising. San Diego was fifth on the list, followed by Los Angeles, Oakland, and Santa Ana.