San Francisco Multifamily Report – Winter 2021
While the metro's economy has been improving, rates were still down 9.4 percent year-over-year.
San Francisco rent evolution, click to enlarge
San Francisco’s rental market took quite a hit in 2020 amid the ongoing health crisis, with the average rent down 1.1 percent on a trailing three-month basis, and 9.4 percent for the whole year. With residents moving away from high-density metros such as San Francisco, New York and LA, rent growth is overperforming in smaller nearby markets including Sacramento and the Inland Empire.
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It’s not all doom and gloom for the Bay Area, though. California’s economy continued to dig itself out of the hole that the health crisis dug in March and April, with unemployment dropping to 8.1 percent as of November. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s financial activities sector recorded gains, adding 1,900 positions in the 12 months ending in November. Although severely hit, trade transportation and utilities and construction may have better days in sight, with the new administration’s plan to inject capital into infrastructure projects likely to yield a rebound for these sectors.
San Francisco sales volume and number of properties sold, click to enlarge
Multifamily sales slowed considerably in 2020, totaling less than half the volume recorded in 2019, as uncertainty put investors off for most of the year’s first half. Meanwhile, development powered through, and 23,247 rental units were underway at the end of last year, with deliveries likely to continue at a steady pace. We expect rent loss to be curbed this year, at -1.7 percent for all of 2021.
