Counties With the Highest Declines in Rental Demand

In December alone, rents dropped in 27 of the 100 largest counties in the nation, a reflection of the continued decline in the desire for urban living. The housing market created a perfect situation for new remote workers to ditch the city life and embrace more space in the suburbs, which results in rental prices dropping. Realtor.com’s chief economist says this trend will end once vaccines fully roll out. The county feeling the effects of fleeing residents most is San Francisco. A median rent for a one bedroom apartment, condo, or townhome dropped 25.5% down to a median of $2,750.

With San Francisco’s tech workers untethered from the office, there’s been a steep drop in rental prices and huge increase in vacancies throughout the Golden City. But not all apartments have been affected equally.

Larger one-bedrooms or those rare places with an office and outdoor space that are close to a park have become much more attractive than the small, $3,000-a-month one-bedrooms in SOMA (the hip South of Market district) popular among the walk-to-work types.

Example: This large, rent-controlled one-bedroom in old-money Nob Hill can now be had for $2,850 a month. And this bright one-bedroom is listed at $2,950 per month. Both of these would’ve been nearly impossible to get into a year ago, let alone for under $3,000.

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