Q1-Q2: New York and San Francisco See 'Astounding" Rise in Rental Activity

[dimondpark]

People are coming back, Oh, and EFF you Covid.

The Great Return: Renters Jumpstart Large Cities with Surge in Applications in 2021

August 12, 2021
by Nadia Balint

The 2021 rental season kicked off twice as strong as usual, with Gen Z and high-earning Millennials being the most active apartment hunters. In particular, New York City and San Francisco saw an astounding interest in apartments during the first half of 2021...

...Although last year’s reports lamented about people “fleeing” the nation’s largest cities, this year’s rental stats put those worries to rest. Renting activity in all of the 30 largest U.S. cities was above that seen during the same period last year and was especially hot in the most popular renter hubs on the coasts. New York apartments led this astounding rebound, as the number of renters moving in the Big Apple doubled in the first half of 2021 compared to 2020. Across the country, the Bay Area was in a similar situation, with 79% more people applying for rentals in San Francisco. Similarly, apartments in Seattle and San Jose also saw a lot of interest from apartment hunters...



https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental...-applications/

[Pedestrian]

^^ So since most businesses still aren't requiring their workers to come to the office, the question arrises whether the younger workers especially left town because they could work anywhere or because the town was dead with everything closed and nothing to do.

I think it's the latter because that's what's changed. Restaurants and bars and clubs and sports and theater and all the rest are open again even if offices aren't.

[streetscaper]

From the article (sorry for the huge size):

[N90]

I like the situation in Boston, Portland, Charlotte, Nashville and Fort Worth.

Rise in apartment rents is a downer for renters since you have to pay more out of pocket to live in a place you’ll never own. There isn’t any benefit to higher rents unless your either a landlord or developer. At least with SFHs and condos, price gains are your gains to profit from.

Also its rudimentary how these publications use random thresholds like 30 largest cities… doing so technically omits Atlanta and Miami since both are outside the 30 even though there’s no mistaking it, they are both big cities.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by N90

I like the situation in Boston, Portland, Charlotte, Nashville and Fort Worth.

Rise in apartment rents is a downer for renters since you have to pay more out of pocket to live in a place you’ll never own. There isn’t any benefit to higher rents unless your either a landlord or developer. At least with SFHs and condos, price gains are your gains to profit from.

Also its rudimentary how these publications use random thresholds like 30 largest cities… doing so technically omits Atlanta and Miami since both are outside the 30 even though there’s no mistaking it, they are both big cities.

The article says not about prices, but refer to the number of applications. Those cities are probably losing inhabitants as renters tend to be a largest share in cities than in suburbs. I don't know how that's a good thing.

Also, with this absurd high prices, I don't think to buy a new house is a bonus.

Anyway, those are incredible news. Soon enough offices will be full of people, and urban renaissance will resume as if Covid hadn't happened.

[N90]

I see, my bad. I didn’t get the chance to read the article and only viewed the image with the map.

Activity increase? I was interested in something else

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

^^ So since most businesses still aren't requiring their workers to come to the office, the question arrises whether the younger workers especially left town because they could work anywhere or because the town was dead with everything closed and nothing to do.

I think it's the latter because that's what's changed. Restaurants and bars and clubs and sports and theater and all the rest are open again even if offices aren't.

I think people are positioning themselves for the eventual return to the office. Many offices are open now, if not most. But most workers haven't been required to report to the office... yet.

[Pedestrian]

Bay Area apartment construction surged during COVID
By LOUIS HANSEN | lhansen@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: August 25, 2021 at 6:10 a.m. | UPDATED: August 25, 2021 at 11:41 a.m.

Bay Area apartment construction has accelerated through the pandemic, surging to its highest level in five years with major new projects in Oakland, San Jose and Mountain View.

But multifamily construction in the region still lags behind most other major metros — with high property and labor costs, heavy regulation and drawn-out battles with neighborhood groups slowing or killing projects.

The San Jose metro is expected to add 5,625 units this year, up 79% from 2020, according to an analysis by real estate data firm Yardi Matrix. San Francisco and the East Bay should see 7,872 new apartments open in 2021, an increase of 36% from the previous year. It’s the highest number of apartments — 13,497 units — added to the region in the last five years.

The big leaps in housing production suggest construction is getting back on track after the initial shock of COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020. But despite the seeming forests of cranes and busy work sites in core Bay Area cities, the region remains stuck in a critical housing shortage and continues to get lapped by construction in other major cities, including economic rivals in the South and Southwest.

Doug Ressler of Yardi Matrix said the rebound of the residential rental market has sparked production across the country. Some of the increase is also due to construction projects planned for 2020 but delayed by the pandemic. “It looks like the market is resurging, as far as transitioning from the pandemic,” he said.

The Bay Area has lagged in construction of new apartment complexes, even as the Silicon Valley boom has attracted new workers and ramped up demand for rentals. The squeeze has pushed rents to the highest in the U.S., punishing many lower income workers struggling with the economic upheaval and health crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

About 70% of the new Bay Area apartments are luxury or a notch below, Ressler said. Construction of new affordable housing units has been limited, he said, and largely done by non-profit developers competing for scarce government subsidies.

Oakland led the burst of new Bay Area apartments, with the city projected to add 3,168, followed by San Jose (2,175), Mountain View (1,714), San Francisco (1,521), Fremont (1,185) and Milpitas (717), according to the analysis.

The busiest construction sites for multifamily projects are in two states popular with ex-Californians — Texas and Arizona. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro led the nation for the fourth straight year, on track to add 21,000 apartments this year. The metro area also landed the headquarters of the formerly San Francisco-based Charles Schwab.

Phoenix is projected to add nearly 16,000 units this year, about 17% more than the combined total of the Bay Area despite having a smaller population. Also topping the Bay Area — New York City, Houston and Los Angeles.

The San Francisco and San Jose metros individually fall behind Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Miami, Minneapolis and Orlando for new construction . . . .

Bay Area demand for apartments still outpaces supply, with urban rents climbing toward pre-pandemic levels in most places. The median price for a two-bedroom apartment in San Jose hit $2,720 this month, according to listing site Zumper. A two-bedroom in San Francisco rents for $3,830, and in Oakland, $2,600.

Yardi Matrix forecasts Bay Area rents to rise between 5 and 10% during the next 12 months, with steepest increases in San Francisco. Apartment construction in parts of the region could pick up, but Ressler said other regions are simply easier places for developers to build.

In cities in the southwest, he said, “you can build faster and cheaper.”

New Apartments at Brooklyn Basin in Oakland

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/...content=manual

[dimondpark]

Brooklyn Basin was originally called Oak to Ninth and was proposed back when George W Bush was president and we're now finally getting this built---by Oakland development and oversight standards, that's super fast.

[CaliNative]

I think these big surges reflect the situation pre August before the really infectious delta wave. The delta surge has perhaps caused some quieting of the boom. However, delta has largely spared NY and SF, so maybe they are still doing well.