This is what you can rent in the Bay Area for $1,500 a month

ByJobina Fortson KGO logo
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
This is what you can rent in the Bay Area for $1,500 a month 
The median national rent is $1,500 a month, according to data collected by Zillow. If you live in the Bay Area, you may have just had to pick your jaw off of from the floor.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The median national rent is $1,500 a month, according to data collected by Zillow. If you live in the Bay Area, you may have just had to pick your jaw off of from the floor.



Zillow provided a breakdown of the median rent for major cities in the Bay Area as well. In Oakland, the median rent is $3,065, in San Jose, it's $3,480, and in San Francisco, it's $4,400. Mic drop.



The startling numbers left us wondering, what can you get in the Bay Area for about the same price the rest of the country is paying? ABC7 News reporter Jobina Fortson went on an apartment hunt to find out.



SHARE YOUR HOUSING STORY: How are you making it work here in the Bay Area?



Jobina's first stop brought her to a co-living building in the Mission run by Starcity, a co-living company. Rent is $2,075 a month.



The space is a former hotel and houses 20 people. They each have their own bedroom in the building. 19 roommates is definitely one way to make friends in a new city! There are eight bathrooms in the building.



Starcity may hold the keys to a millennial's dream. They host events for residents and provide all household essentials. For example, toilet paper, laundry detergent, dishes...you name it, they probably have it.



"Basically all you need is a suitcase and you can show up," Ellis Tran, a member onboarding manager for Starcity said. "Everything in the room is furnished, with that fresh towel and you plug into a community also."



Starcity's Mission District property gives off the vibe of a fancy adult dorm.



RELATED: This woman lives in a closet in San Francisco



"Most of our members are younger professionals, a couple years into their careers, but we also have outliers," Tran said. "We call them our 're-starters.'" Older in age, maybe 40's, 50's."



Nico Seperas provided ABC7 News reporter Jobina Fortson with a tour of the living spaces.



"Floor number one has ten units and we have two full baths and one-half bath," Seperas said on the tour. "They are cleaned Monday through Friday."



The bedrooms fit a full-size bed, closet, desk, mini-fridge, and a sink. The $2,075 a month rent isn't exactly $1,500, but Seperas thinks tenants will be close enough because of the included amenities.



"It is a little bit over," Seperas said. "However, like I said, you don't have purchase furniture. You don't have to worry about buying supplies."



Time is money right?



The second stop on the apartment tour was an efficiency studio in the Tenderloin. Rent is $1,495.



"An efficiency studio doesn't have a full kitchen," Steven Shutler, leasing manager for RentSFNow, said.



RELATED: Bay Area housing prices: A look at the outrageous numbers



Shutler's recommendation for efficiency studio tenants is to get a microwave or eat out for dinner. The studio did include a bathroom, closet, a mini-fridge and a full-size bed would fit nicely. The natural light was a big draw to the unit.



It was very difficult to find a studio apartment in San Francisco under the $1,500 budget. The location we toured sat in the heart of the Tenderloin across from an alley-way park.



When asked if the $1,495 rent was a good deal, Shutler responded, "It's very competitive. There are not many studios in this price range."



The third stop on the tour was a home in Oakland run by a company called Bungalow. Rent is between $1,400 and $1,450 per resident.



"We're right downtown, right next to BART," Kayla Combs, a marketing lead at Bungalow, said. "It's a great location."



Almost every room in the Bungalow home ABC7 News toured could fit a king-size bed.



"This home is a four-bedroom house so that would be four roommates living together comfortably," Combs said. "There are I believe three baths in this house."



"They have a great shower," Combs said. "It's really nice too. A lot of our homes are remodeled."



RELATED: $1,200 a month bunk beds aim to help ease San Francisco's housing crisis



All Bungalow homes come furnished in the common areas. The company also throws events for their tenants.



"They are anything from sunset sailing in the Bay to you know, happy hours," Combs said.



Unexpectedly becoming responsible for someone else's rent can be a roommate's worst nightmare. Bungalow had that in mind when creating the company.



"Every resident is financially responsible on their own," Combs said. "So, if there's a third roommate that ends up not paying rent, they don't have to deal with it. It's on Bungalow. We handle it."



The final stop on the apartment hunt was a studio apartment in San Jose. The unit is $1,500 a month and sits behind a single-family home in the Willow Glen neighborhood. The apartment included a microwave, mini-fridge, television, sink and bathroom. The property did not have a kitchen.



Interestingly, the unit was already occupied, by two cats. Their owner did not have a place for the animals to stay, so he's renting them a $1,500 a month studio. How Silicon Valley is that?



Take a look at ABC7's latest stories and videos about efforts to Build a Better Bay Area.



Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.