San Francisco Rent Prices Will Make Your Jaw Drop — A Studio Apartment Costs How Much?

San Francisco residents looking to rent a small studio apartment are going to be in for a shock.

The jaw-dropping San Francisco rent prices were highlighted in a recent flyer submitted to Yahoo! Finance. The paper shows a listing of apartments in different parts of San Francisco, with the cheapest being a downtown studio apartment at $2,495 a month and the most expensive a two-bedroom apartment in Russian Hill for $6,995 a month.

The list included houses in some of the trendier neighborhoods in San Francisco but also places where prices were once much lower.

In the last five years, the city — already priced as the highest in the county — has seen rent prices skyrocket, as an influx of high-paid tech workers have driven up the cost of living. The median price for a one-bedroom apartment is now $3,460 a month while studio apartments are listed for as much as $3,800 a month, depending on location.

At a time when other cities are starting to see rent prices decline a bit, San Francisco rent prices are breaking records, notes the Zumper real estate blog.

“San Francisco remained the most expensive market in the United States for the ninth straight month, with median 1-bedroom rents rising to $3,460, the highest ever recorded. The gain was particularly notable considering that NYC, the second most expensive market, saw rents plateau in February, even after a slight drop of 3.2% in January. Boston maintained its third place position, despite a 4.2% drop to $2,300.”

Though the prices may be astronomical, there are many San Francisco residents left with no other choice.

Nicole Jones is one of those people. The single mother lost her job and was forced to move into a single-car garage, along with her 18-month-old daughter, while she looked for a new one.

Jones was able to find a job eventually, but with rent prices exploding, she was forced to stay in the garage. The apartment is so small that she has barely enough room for her kitchen and some essential furniture, and Jones has to enter by opening the entire front door.

Her rent for that 250-square-foot space — $1,000 a month.

“This is pretty much all I could get.” Jones told CNN.

The San Francisco rent prices would be out of reach of most average workers. Many landlords require that tenants have an annual income that’s at least 40 times their monthly rent, so they would need to make roughly $100,000 a year just to afford the smallest studio apartment.

[Image via The Plan Collection]