Median rent in Silicon Valley right now
'Two trends have driven this, one macro-economic, one micro'
While the coronavirus pandemic has led some Silicon Valley rent prices to drop, the median price is still high compared to other major U.S. metropolitan areas.
Nationally, the median rent for a one-bedroom grew 1 percent since June to $1,229, a rent for a two-bedroom increased 0.8 percent to $1,485; the median national rent has increased 0.4 percent year-over-year, according to July 1 data from rental website Zumper.
The median rent of a one-bedroom apartment in San Fransisco, by comparison, fell 2.4 percent since June to $3,280, and the median rent of a two-bedroom dropped 1.8 percent to $4,340. On a year-over-year basis, the rent cost for a one-bedroom in San Fransisco dropped 11.8 percent, Zumper found.
It is the first time San Fransisco's rent price has fallen by double-digits, Zumper CEO Anthemos Georgiades said in a July 1 tweet.
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Georgiades also noted in his tweet that rent prices also dropped in the double-digits throughout Silicon Valley; rents fell 15.1 percent in Mountain View, where Google is headquartered; 13.5 percent in Menlo Park, where Facebook is headquartered; 11.1 percent in Palo Alto, where Tesla is headquartered; and 15.7 percent in Cupertino, where Apple is headquartered.
In San Jose, rent for a one-bedroom fell 5 percent to $2,300, and rent for a two-bedroom fell 3.1 percent to $2,860, Zumper found.
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Georgiades and other journalists have correlated the drop in rent prices with the coronavirus pandemic and the high numbers of people moving outside Silicon Valley as the virus leads more tech companies to extend work-from-home policies into next year or make in-person work entirely optional.
Typical San Francisco Neighborhood, Cityscape, California, United States. / iStock
"Two trends have driven this," Georgiades wrote. "One macro-economic, one micro: 1. Enormous recession brought on by #Covid19 2. Move to remote future of work for large tech employers like FB The Bay Area's dips are sharper than any other major metro due to the latter."
He added that this does not mean everyone is leaving Silicon Valley, but there is a migration to more affordable and spacious neighborhoods, like Oakland.
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The 2019 homeless population in San Fransisco was 8,035, and 11 percent, or about 883 of those homeless respondents said they are working full-time, part-time or temporary jobs. In San Jose, the homeless population was 6,097 while nearly 20 percent, or 1,158 people, said they had full or part-time jobs.