Riverside Rental Prices

[MusicMan]

I've got he answer:  buy the cute little bungalow I just listed in Springfield. Own it for less than $900 per month (FHA financing with 3.5% down).

Anyone interested can PM me.

I'd post a picture but have no idea how to.

[simms3]

Have not seen.  But I know the premise.  It's a very good premise, though 2 thoughts:

1) The very people who are at most risk of being priced out are doing the most to price themselves out by fighting tooth and nail any and all new housing developments that are proposed for the city.  Both on the luxe front (existing condo owners don't want their views or vistas changed or interrupted/blocked) and on the affordable front (don't even get me started on the this one).

For instance, in less than 2 weeks we are actually going to vote on a housing moratorium for a huge swath of the city, covering such high in demand transit-rich neighborhoods such as the Mission.  In the midst of this tech gold rush.  Because people there honestly believe the supply/demand equation does not apply to a global city like SF (if you build more it will provide relief) and there are some Latinos there who do feel they own the neighborhood a bit.  That is the kind of crazy we are talking about.


2) San Francisco shouldn't need rent control or super tenant-friendly laws and a whole tenant's union and this that and the other because in reality there should be plenty of housing options for all, but since we are where we are now because nothing is every historically allowed to be built in the city and the city might be the strongest, economically, in the world or at least US right now, then it's safe to say THANK GOD we have laws forbidding landlords from doing a whole range of stuff (try evicting someone here...at minimum could be a 6-figure payout and only if you evict to house yourself and convert other units to condo), and rent control.

When people say the character of the city has changed, I get it.  But so much is extreme hyperbole and exaggeration.  Many people who move here from other cultures, say SE (me) or NE (others) or Australia or Europe or Asia or wherever end up adopting to the local culture.  This city is so unique and has such a legacy culture so unique to it that it just won't change.  The whole city still empties out at Burning Man.  You can still lay in the many parks all day and watch the cityscape while smoking buds you bought in front of a cop who doesn't care, and murals decorate buildings everywhere.  The city is progressive enough where housing is built to house artists specifically, teachers specifically, senior LGBT, etc.  And by the way, it still takes a special kind of person to even want to move to SF.  It's so unique that it isn't for everyone.  So the risk that it will become generic like Dallas is literally 0%.


Living here has literally changed my life.  I cringe every day at the fact that I still have $0 in my bank account and debt to boot with a job working for a prestigious PE firm/hedge fund (we have both models within our firm), while my friends in Jax are getting married, buying nice houses, having kids, etc.  But I wouldn't have it any other way and deem it worth it to stay here for my own livelihood and for the certain types of connections I've made here that I wouldn't be able to make at all or as easily elsewhere.  This in large part because SF is and will always be SF and all that that entails.

This isn't the city's first rodeo at a "gold rush"...apparently it happens here every 10-20 years and brings new people each time that leave their mark on the fabric/culture of the city.  The Aussies helped found the place in 1849-1860 and burned the city down multiple times since they were hooligans.  They are still around in large quantities today.  I'd say awkward, single, ambitious, often gay men have been a part of just about every boom here from the time it all started and obviously things haven't changed. 

[Lunican]

Living here has literally changed my life.  I cringe every day at the fact that I still have $0 in my bank account and debt to boot with a job working for a prestigious PE firm/hedge fund (we have both models within our firm), while my friends in Jax are getting married, buying nice houses, having kids, etc.  But I wouldn't have it any other way and deem it worth it to stay here for my own livelihood and for the certain types of connections I've made here that I wouldn't be able to make at all or as easily elsewhere.  This in large part because SF is and will always be SF and all that that entails.

Hope it works out, but the longer you stay at a negative net worth the harder it will be to have anything later on. At what point do you expect to be able to build any personal wealth in SF? I like SF, but not nearly that much!

[MusicMan]

Simms, the 49ers Suck my man. Makes Jags fans feel good about themselves.

[thelakelander]

Living here has literally changed my life.  I cringe every day at the fact that I still have $0 in my bank account and debt to boot with a job working for a prestigious PE firm/hedge fund (we have both models within our firm), while my friends in Jax are getting married, buying nice houses, having kids, etc.  But I wouldn't have it any other way and deem it worth it to stay here for my own livelihood and for the certain types of connections I've made here that I wouldn't be able to make at all or as easily elsewhere.  This in large part because SF is and will always be SF and all that that entails.

Hope it works out, but the longer you stay at a negative net worth the harder it will be to have anything later on. At what point do you expect to be able to build any personal wealth in SF? I like SF, but not nearly that much!

I like SF and a host of other cities too. However, I like cash in my pocket better. At the end of the day, any place I want to spend time in is only a flight or drive a way.

[simms3]

SF Curbed What $2800 Rents You in San Francisco

To put things in perspective.  The very first option is at 7th and Mission, in a very rough part of SoMa.  Newish 275 sf studios are renting for the same amount ($2,400-2,900) in the "nicer" part of SoMa on the south side of 280.  No parking available at any of these options (but add $300-350/mo to find nearby secure parking...or risk your car being broken in as my friend's was on Saturday night, in Soma), and bonus points for including laundry in the building, a microwave, and/or a dishwasher, all considered "luxury" options here.  Lol

All of this mostly for my own amusement as you guys gawk at $1500/mo for luxe (relative to what I'm used to) 2 bedrooms.

[David]

All of this mostly for my own amusement as you guys gawk at $1500/mo for luxe (relative to what I'm used to) 2 bedrooms.

Yep, I do gawk at that for rent. At least in Jax.  My mortgage is less than that! Granted, not in a neighborhood as attractive as Riverside but it can be had here.  I've had the cost of living discussion with friends in the larger cities countless times, especially in the New York area as I wanted to live there at one point. But I could never justify the idea of having to get a roommates to pay the rent  because I know my skillset will not allow me the income to live comfortably on one income.

That's why I clarified that in the original post, because any time I talk about rent prices in Jax someone always says "Well, a studio in XYZ megalopolis cost 4k a month to rent" Yes, it's way more expensive in other large cities, but we're talking Jax here.  It's interesting to see the rent starting to trickle up, but 1500 isn't outrageous by any means. Just a new high point for a spruced up quad apartment in Riverside.

But this does bring me to another discussion I've had about cost of living in other cities. Let's say the average apartment in Brooklyn cost..what..2500 a month? And let's say a job in Jax pays 60k a year, but pays 75k-80k up there. It seems to me that yes, certain jobs do pay up to 30% more in the larger cities, but it still doesn't offset the 100-200% cost of living increase over living here.

I like our cost of living, i'm willing to trade in the amenities of glam of the larger cities in exchange for down to earth home prices and rental rates. But I do see the beginnings of rent hikes coming in to Riverside. Like you said earlier, the incomes aren't going up here but home and rental prices are.

[ben says]

Data point: I moved to Riverside in 2011. Rent was $725 per month. Now, in 2015 (same place), rent was just upped to $1025 per month.

[Tacachale]

Recently had a conversation with a friend that reminded me of this thread. He recently moved from the bay area to Reno, Nevada, and cost of living was a major factor. Dude is a doctor who was completing his fellowship at Stanford, and he was just getting by in the bay area. His family loved where they lived, but when it came time to apply for other positions he mostly looked elsewhere.

He said that it's not a case where he was getting paid more to mitigate the higher cost of living; Stanford actually underpays doctors, as they don't have to pay well to compete for the best talent nationally. He lived with his family in Redwood City, which is really nice, but he and his wife and 2 young kids were renting a 2 bedroom, 3rd floor apartment with no elevator. It cost them $2200 a month, and when his lease ended last spring they were going to raise it to $2600, though doing no improvements. He said every cost was increasingly expensive; food, clothes for the kids, gas. He also didn't get the savings of a car free lifestyle; to get to work (and many other places) he had to both have a car - in his case an ancient Subaru he inherited from his grandparents - and transit passes for the family. These costs plus his student loans made things more limiting. Obviously, he's a doctor, he's doing a lot better than most, but the fact that even someone like him was getting priced out of the region is really eye opening.

[Steve]

Living here has literally changed my life.  I cringe every day at the fact that I still have $0 in my bank account and debt to boot with a job working for a prestigious PE firm/hedge fund (we have both models within our firm), while my friends in Jax are getting married, buying nice houses, having kids, etc.  But I wouldn't have it any other way and deem it worth it to stay here for my own livelihood and for the certain types of connections I've made here that I wouldn't be able to make at all or as easily elsewhere.  This in large part because SF is and will always be SF and all that that entails.

Hope it works out, but the longer you stay at a negative net worth the harder it will be to have anything later on. At what point do you expect to be able to build any personal wealth in SF? I like SF, but not nearly that much!

I like SF and a host of other cities too. However, I like cash in my pocket better. At the end of the day, any place I want to spend time in is only a flight or drive a way.

Somehow I missed this thread until it got bumped. Riverside has gone up dramatically - my rent has personally gone up 70% since I've lived here (thankfully the rental days are numbered). But SF is on another planet - in my previous gig I was out there a couple times for work and just in talking to people I got a feel for how expensive the city is.

The thing that throws me is that if you compare SF to NY, they are both crazy expensive in the core of the city, but NY seems to ease more as you get out into Westchester, Nassau, and Jersey (neighborhood dependent of course). That doesn't seem to be the case in SF, at least not south of the city.

[Tacachale]

^The costs of everything shocked me when we visited last year. It made me understand the "Google bus" protests. Residents in poorer areas in San Francisco and Oakland saw the buses as an incentive for well-off tech workers to move into low income areas while still working out in Silicon Valley. When they moved in it drove up the rents and generally gentrified the neighborhoods, and they didn't have to deal with the traffic or mass transit themselves. I don't agree with the protesters, but I get it.

[ProjectMaximus]

It's been almost nine years since my last time in SF. Will finally visit again some time this year. Anyway, one of our business partners lives in the heart of the city and I was shocked to hear that his 2/2 townhome would command around $6k in rent. If he hadn't bought it 20 years ago he wouldn't be able to afford living in the city anymore.

[MusicMan]

In Riverside, rents are probably too high. But there has not been much new built there in the last 10 years. Very limited inventory.

I listed a multi family (4 unit) near Kickbacks which brought  multiple cash asking price offer's in the first week. The Seller had owned for 13 years, paid $88,000. And sold for the $335,000 range.  The best units brought as much as $1050 in rent.  It had no yard to speak of and on street parking. 

[jaxlongtimer]

Generally, rents are up just about everywhere by quite a bit.  With hardly any new construction for the last few years due to the recession and improvements in the economy now leading to increased household formation, along with stricter underwriting standards for mortgages, you have a near perfect storm for rising rents due to the increased demand to supply ratio.

By the way, I have observed rents for houses along Hendricks Ave., from San Marco to Lakewood, rise some 25 to 40% over the last three years or so.  This area is also built out and many rental houses have come off the market now that sellers can get close to, or better than, pre-recession prices.  Current selling prices are too high to allow decent rental ROI's resulting in rentals converting to owner-occupied homes, further decreasing supply while demand rises.  This has been especially true over the last 18 months or so.  [Check out Zillow - Jacksonville - House Rentals ( http://www.zillow.com/jacksonville-fl/rent-houses/ ) to monitor these trends.]

The boom in medicine-related jobs in the urban core (Baptist, St. Vincent's, UF Shands/Health, countless doctors offices & now MD Anderson) is also doing a lot to drive the demand for rentals (and sales) in Riverside/San Marco.  I don't see that slowing down anytime soon given the demographic trends for baby boomers .

Given the successes in Brooklyn, where rents are among the highest in the urban core, along with the above observations, I would think the time is close for the condos/apartments/Publix complex to become viable.  The only hesitation might be competing with Healthy Town/The District's inventory.  Will be interesting to see the rate of absorption.