Bay Area Residents Spending More On Rent Each Year Than Before Recession

San Francisco. Though Prices Have Dropped A Bit Recently, It Remains The Most Expensive Place To Rent An Apartment In The Country.

Bay Area rents are eating away at household incomes more than in past years. San Jose renters are spending 39% of their monthly incomes on rents, or $13,525 more than previous years as of Q3. Before the recession, rent accounted for 26% of monthly incomes. This increase is more than any other metro analyzed in a recent Zillow report.

The second-biggest increase was in San Francisco, where renters are paying $11,236 more on rents, or 42.4% of monthly incomes compared to before the recession when renters spent 30% of monthly income on rent. Sacramento, comparatively, had a minimal increase of $37 annually for renters, who are spending 31.8% of their monthly incomes on rent.

National rents require 29.1% of median monthly income, nearly $2K more than before the recession when renters spent 25.8% of their monthly median income on housing.

Zillow Chief Economist Svenja Gudell said putting more income toward rent means people have less income to pay off student debt, build an emergency fund or save for retirement. It also means less money for a down payment on a home.

“This is another example of how much worse rent affordability has gotten,” Gudell said.

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's San Francisco Newsletters
Related Stories

Suburban D.C. County Weighs Microhousing As Affordability Salve

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Rewrite Underwriting Standards For NYC's Rent Freeze

RealPage Antitrust Case Ends With Nearly $360M In Settlements For Renters

ZOM Living Entity Files For Bankruptcy To Fund Fight To Overturn $323M Judgment

Golden Apartment Building Sells For $62M To Chicago Company

New Student Housing Towers Lease Up Quickly In University City, But Developers Can't Build More

Nord Group's Lawyer Moves To Quit, Says Entities Can't Pay Him

Orchard Partners Selects JLL To Market 892K SF Manufacturing Campus In Brisbane: The San Francisco Deal Sheet

Housing Completions Close To 40,000 As LDA Adds Major Site And CEO Departs

Voorhees Greenlights 178-Unit Office-To-Resi Conversion Amid Multifamily Boom

Battered Mortgage REIT Suspends Dividend To Preserve Cash

Tyko Capital Sets New Record For Florida's Largest Construction Loan