News Welcome to the age of the $4,000 apartment, when even the well-off are struggling

News Welcome to the age of the $4,000 apartment, when even the well-off are struggling Too many renters, too few homes, and high prices are inducing "renter fatigue" in the apartment hunt. APTS FOR RENT 415-235-2723 When Vy found out that her landlord was going to raise the rent on her studio apartment in SoMa by 30%, she gave notice on the apartment where she'd lived for two years and ventured out into San Francisco's rental market. What she found was rental hell. Open houses full of tech bros offering to bid up prices, countless ghostings after emails and inquiries, and a general expectation to come to every viewing armed with an application and a credit score. "Every hour of the day, I was on Craigslist and Zillow," said Vy, who works in the construction industry. "It was the worst time of my life, probably." She ended up in a Mission studio worse than her prior home — no dishwasher, no laundry, no two weeks free as a move-in bonus. Still, she's grateful to have found something at all. She moved into her new place July 1, and according to her Zillow alerts, prices have only gone up since. The average rent of a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $4,300, according to Zillow. A recent report from the city controller said San Francisco is experiencing an "accelerating period of economic growth, primarily driven by the AI investment boom." Many prospective renters are new to the city and working in AI and finance, according to Sotheby's broker Christopher J. Meza. Vacant places are quickly scooped up. "The properties I represent don't last on the market for more than two days," Meza said, adding that the market is "extraordinary" compared with previous years. "Every single time that I speak to them, I can see in their face how much renter fatigue they're experiencing," Hernandez said. "A lot of them have talked about how they feel like finding an apartment is impossible right now and how much they want to give up." The search itself is brutal. One Friday afternoon, I hunted down 10 phone numbers attached to active Craigslist and Zillow apartment listings. Most listings didn't include a phone number at all. Of the ones that did, no one answered. One voicemail informed me my recorded message could be used to train artificial intelligence. Only one person got back to me, concerned that I was a resident in distress. After sending 14 messages, I heard back from three brokers — and was added to an email list. Hernandez launched an app five months ago that shows vertical video walkthrough tours of apartments. Landlords can list their properties for free, and more than 20,000 prospective tenants have signed up. The app facilitates communication between landlords and potential tenants by matching their available times for tours. Those frustrations are exactly what Hernandez says renters describe every day. "There is such a limited supply of apartments, and therefore, renters are experiencing so much fatigue, because they're wasting so much time looking at units that don't match the descriptions and don't look like the photos," said Daisy Hernandez, better known by her social handle The Apartment Plug. "There are so many unanswered inquiries."