Start spreading the news: New York last month passed San Francisco as the country's most expensive city to rent a one-bedroom apartment.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the median monthly cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in New York City ($2,810) surpassed that of San Francisco ($2,800) in July, according to Zumper's most recent data.
Since Zumper began tracking rental data in 2014, San Francisco has held the top spot. As recently as February 2019, San Francisco's median one-bedroom rent was $800 more expensive than its East Coast counterpart.
The gap between the two cities began closing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the distance decreased as both were under some of the country's strictest coronavirus-related restrictions. But as New York City and San Francisco started loosening restrictions and distributing vaccines, rents in the former city rebounded far faster than in the latter.
New York City rent is down 1.4% from March 2020, rising nearly 20% from the start of the year. San Francisco rent, according to Zumper’s data, is down 20% from last March and has only risen 4.5%.
Data journalist Jeff Andrews, writing for Zumper, theorized that San Francisco's disproportionate share of technology workers is behind the difference. Those companies are more likely to have adopted some form of flexible work-from-home policies, even before the delta variant delayed many office reopenings scheduled for the fall, which could continue to slow the rise of rents.
"For tech companies in San Francisco that do plan on having an office, those workers can continue to live outside of the city, likely putting a ceiling on how much rent will rise in San Francisco," Andrews wrote.
Rent across the Bay Area is down from pre-pandemic heights, with the median one-bedroom rental in Oakland (16.7% decrease) and San Jose (15% decrease) down more than just about any city in the country. Still, Oakland ($2,000 per month, No. 7) and San Jose ($2,200, No. 4) each earned places among Zumper’s 10 most expensive cities in the U.S.
Although renting a one-bedroom apartment in New York is slightly more expensive than in San Francisco, the median cost of a two-bedroom is still far more expensive in the city by the Bay ($3,830 per month) than the city that never sleeps ($3,000).