Rising rent costs strain residents while other price changes get less focus
Tenants feel the impact of steep rent hikes, a pain often overlooked compared to fluctuating gas prices.
7 voices
What people say
- Finally told my parents I can't afford to move out yet. I'm 28. I wasn't planning on feeling ashamed about it, but here I am.
- Signed a lease today. It's 41% of my take-home. The articles keep saying the housing market is "cooling." I wonder who they're writing for.
- My landlord just handed me a 22% rent increase notice with 30 days to respond. I have two kids in school nearby and moving would uproot everything. I have been a good tenant for four years. Has anyone successfully negotiated with a landlord or found tenant protections that actually work in SF?
- Landlord just sent a 19% rent increase notice. In writing. For a 1-bedroom I've been in for 4 years. The lease renewal is in 6 weeks. I make decent money but this would be $340 more per month. The math doesn't work. Housing in this country is broken.
- Just got my lease renewal. Landlord raised rent 18%. I make decent money and still had to run the math three times to figure out if I can stay. Friends who make less are looking at two-hour commutes or leaving the city entirely. When does the housing crisis start getting treated as the economic emergency it actually is?
- Heard that rents in some SF neighborhoods are slightly softening. I want to feel hopeful about this. I also know that slightly softening from an already impossible number is not really relief. But I'll take any movement in the right direction.
- Gas goes down and I barely notice. Rent goes up and it changes my life. These two things are not the same kind of relief and I wish the headlines treated them that way.