Landlords in almost every part of SF have reason to celebrate as the Wall Street Journal reports rising rents and falling vacancies. Effective rent, or the amount paid to landlords after discounting went up from $974 last year to $997 during the second quarter of 2011. Average effective rent in SF is now a whopping $1,806.
Vacancies also fell from 7.8% last year to 6%. Though numbers slid from 45,000 units filled in the first quarter to 33,000 in the second, life is seemingly ideal for most city landlords.
And then there are Haight-Ashbury landlords, whose ever-increasing rents have left one Chronicle columnist aghast. According to CW Nevius reports, though the “gutter punks” (merely a quote, Nevius assures us) of the past have migrated to Golden Gate Park, rampant drunks still plague the neighborhood, taking their daily rides to SF General for some sobering up before coming back stronger the next day.
You’d think that that would hit landlords where it hurts — after all, who would want to work in the post-apocalyptic Haight nightmare the Chron columnist has detailed in column after column?
But you’d be wrong! Instead, quoth Nevius, “Haight landlords continue to burden the corridor with unreasonable rents.”
It’s unclear from the column if the problem described relates to residential properties, commercial spaces, or both, but Nevius quotes Haight Ashbury Merchants Association member and owner of FTC Skate Kent Uyehara that, “Haight Street rents are more comparable to downtown/Fisherman’s Wharf rates.”
A highly-non-scientific quick spin through Craigslist listings for the areas seems to prove Uyehara right: 1 bedrooms in the Haight were listed from the slightly-above average $1850 to $3000 (yikes), while “downtown” 1-bedrooms (which CL also says is “Civic Center” and “Van Ness,” so Tenderloinish) ranges from $1300 to $2495.
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