AvalonBay’s Ocean Avenue apartment building joined the market last year just in time to cash in on 9.9 percent rent growth in San Francisco in 2013. Rents won’t be rising as fast this year.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Explosive rent growth in the Bay Area appears to be slowing down.

Apartment rents are expected to grow about the same this year in both San Francisco and the East Bay, according to data from Marcus Millichap.

In San Francisco, the firm predicts rents will rise 3.2 percent to an average of $2,455 per month.

In the East Bay, rents will grow by 3.3 percent to an average of $1,575 per month.

What does that mean? It’s still way cheaper to live in the East Bay than San Francisco (duh!), but also that 2013 is proving to be a year of moderation compared with 2012, when San Francisco rents shot up 9.9 percent and East Bay rents grew by 6.9 percent.

Not only is rent growth slowing down, but more units are hitting both markets. In San Francisco, 3,000 new apartments will be completed this year and about 2,100 will come online in the East Bay.

Addition of new supply should help quell soaring demand for housing.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/07/bay-area-apartment-rents-slowing-down.html