Bay Area rents continue to soar from pandemic discounts, but it still makes more sense to rent than to buy in the region, according to a new report.
In the month of January, the Bay Area had among the top five highest median rents for studio to 2-bedroom units in the country, according to Realtor.com. The median rent in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara region was $3,062 and in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward region, it was $2,975.
But you would still be saving money by renting than if you bought a starter home of a comparable size.
In the South Bay you would be saving an average of $1,479 and in San Francisco and East Bay the difference is $1,461. This is thanks to equally robust home sales prices.
Other cities that topped the pro-rent market, not surprisingly, were tech hubs. Here’s the top 10 below:
Top 10 Markets that Favor Renting Over Buying
Median rent Monthly buy cost1 Austin-Round Rock, TX $1,769 $3,1152 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA $2,700 $4,1153 San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA $2,975 $4,4364 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA $3,062 $4,5415 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA $2,086 $2,9086 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH $2,795 $3,8437 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO $1,895 $2,5408 Rochester, NY $1,264 $1,6249 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA $1,733 $2,17610 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA $2,982 $3,742
