Melissa Kargiannakis is a Bay Area tech professional, but despite her success says she can't afford to live alone in San Francisco.
"The elusive dream. A one-bedroom in San Francisco," said Kargiannakis.
The ABC7 News Data Team analyzed data from the website Zumper, capturing median prices for 1 and 2 bedroom apartment listings.
On the list of most expensive one bedroom rentals, San Francisco is second at $2,850 a month -- only New York surpassed that cost. San Jose is fourth at $2,390 a month and Oakland is eighth at $2,100 a month.
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"I wish. That'd be great," said Kargiannakis. She says her search has yielded even higher rents, "It's shocking how high rates are right now."
Brad Hirn is the Lead Organizer at the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. He says corporate landlords drive the market up.
"Whether it's rent increases or fees or loopholes in existing rent regulations, then it pushes the overall rents up," said Hirn.
"We just don't have enough affordable housing and we need more," said Shanti Singh, Tenants Together Communications & Legislative Director.
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Tenants Together is a coalition of 50 renters rights organizations across California.
Singh says we should think of renter protections as homelessness prevention.
"Once somebody becomes homeless it is very hard to get them back into a home again," said Singh.
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Rents in the Bay Area are likely to continue climbing, according to Zumper's Senior Market Analyst Jeff Andrews.
"Rent is still down in San Francisco by 16% and it's still the second most expensive market in the country," said Andrews.
When looking at two bedrooms, the rent costs in San Francisco surpass New York with a median rent of $3,930 a month. San Jose is listed as $2,870 a month and Oakland is listed as $2,770 a month.
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Andrews says most cities' rents rebounded in January of 2021.
"The West coast was a little sluggish to creep back up," said Andrews.
Especially the Bay Area, which he says will change as tech companies go back to in-office work.
"So no yeah, it's not looking good," said Kargiannakis.
And not looking like Kargiannakis will be able to move out on her own, for now.