Post by Funky George! on Apr 22, 2008 18:22:23 GMT -5
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DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO, June 5
The open house for the $1,800-a-month four-room flat (1 bdrm, 1 bth) began at 9:30 a.m. sharp. By 9:35, a couple
were perched on the wooden steps hastily filling out a rental application, and two more were about to do the same.
Still, after three months of nonstop searching for an oxymoron -- an affordable, available apartment in San
Francisco -- the couple, Kim Kowalski and Dylan Snodgrass, had nothing to lose by throwing their credit reports in the
ring.
"Even though we have a combined income of $110,000, we're considered low-end," said Ms. Kowalski, a
31-year-old marketing representative. "We've had places charge for the rental application. We've had people require that
we give them sealed credit reports. Usually, if it's a good place for a good price -- our limit is $2,200 -- there's usually
around 30 applicants."
In fact, after an hour at the open house, Gene Fong, who was showing the apartment in the four-unit house for its
owners, had had enough.
Just one little advertisement in an Internet community bulletin board on Thursday afternoon had yielded more than
40 e-mail queries and at least that many visitors to the Saturday morning showing. "I guess the rent is pretty
reasonable," Mr. Fong said, as though he thought it might be a little too reasonable.
There would be no need for another open house. There never is.
These are manna-from-heaven days for San Francisco landlords. Driven by Silicon Valley millionaires and their
buying frenzy, the median price of a home here is now close to $500,000, a price that only 11 percent of the city's
750,000 residents can afford. Consequently, 80 percent of San Francisco's residents are tenants, perhaps the highest
percentage in the country.
In San Francisco, which has a vacancy rate of less than 1 percent, compared with 2.57 percent in Manhattan, there
are never enough apartments.
The free-market horror stories about elderly longtime tenants being forced out so that young blood with new money
can pay whatever it takes are all too common here. So are the tales of barely inhabitable rooms for $1,000 a month. The
hunt for an apartment in almost any neighborhood in San Francisco is unlike the hunt anywhere else in the country,
even overpriced Manhattan.
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A 300-square-foot unrenovated studio in the kind of neighborhood your mother taught you to avoid can cost $1,100
a month, with a three-month security deposit. A studio in a building you would not mind showing your boss can run
$1,700. Rents for one-bedroom apartments with no amenities save a respectable address are at least $1,800.
But it is not only the prices that make the search daunting.
Any apartment listed in the classifieds or on rental bulletin boards will draw dozens, even scores of applicants. This
leads to intense competition among prospective tenants. Individual appointments are almost unheard of; most
apartments are shown through open houses where applicants elbow each other to audition as the best rental bet.
Rental agents are suggesting that prospective tenants come armed with renters' resumes detailing their credit and
job history, credit reports and references. They also suggest that renters wear professional attire and show enthusiasm
for the apartment, as though the $1,800-a-month junior one-bedroom walk-up overlooking the freeway were their dream
pad, the place they wanted to make a home for life.
"Renting a place in San Francisco, people have to treat it as if they are applying to an Ivy League college," said
Grey Todd, president of Rent Tech, an apartment-listing service. "You have to kiss up to the landlords. The landlords
can pick the creme de la creme of tenants, the absolute perfect person for their space. How many people are looking for
a studio or a two-bedroom? As many as 50 to 80 for each place. The tenant has to stand out."
Landlords, besieged with applicants with six-figure incomes and stock portfolios, say it is not uncommon for
prospective tenants to offer 10 percent over the monthly asking price for a rental, or to offer to redo the floors or
remodel the bathroom.
"In 22 years, it has never been this crazy, this good," said Don DeShon, who co-owns 13 rental properties in San
Francisco. Last week, he was offered $5,000 just to hold an $1,800-a-month one-bedroom apartment in an industrial
neighborhood that he had yet to advertise.
"I would suggest, if you're looking and you see something you're vaguely interested in, you take it," Mr. DeShon
said.
Any landlord unfortunate enough to have a place listed for more than a week will be inundated with perhaps
hundreds of phone calls. Marc Lamboy, who owns three small buildings in the city, listed a $1,500-a-month
one-bedroom apartment and received more than 100 calls in a week. "Do I have sympathy for renters?" he said.
"Absolutely."
Those looking can start feeling pretty sorry for themselves. "It's so competitive," said Jennifer Bomze, who moved
here from Ann Arbor, Mich., with her boyfriend. Both recently earned their M.B.A.'s and are working for a start-up
company where they earn a combined $200,000 a year. That has not been enough to impress prospective landlords.
"There are a few places that we really liked and hoped to hear from," said Ms. Bomze, who has set her ceiling at
$2,500 for a one-bedroom in a halfway decent neighborhood. "I don't know if people got there before we did. I'm not
sure what else it is the landlords are looking for."
Ms. Kowalski and Mr. Snodgrass, who have been renting a room in a friend's house for $1,200 a month until they
find a place, have turned the task into a full-time job. "I basically spend at least six hours a day, six days a week
looking," said Ms. Kowalski, whose real job is on hold while Mr. Snodgrass, a carpenter, earns their keep. The couple
moved here from the Central Coast city of San Luis Obispo, where the living is easy and Ms. Kowalski paid $580 for a
one-bedroom apartment.
"Dylan wanted to live in San Francisco because it's such a great city," Ms. Kowalski said. "But we have no life. We
do nothing but look for a place. We do nothing but compete with other people for the landlords' attention."
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In San Francisco, Renters Are Supplicants The New York Times June 6, 2000, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
With that, Mr. Snodgrass joined a group of applicants encircling Gene Fong at the open house on Saturday, hoping
Mr. Fong would notice what a nice, clean-cut young man he was.
www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: June 6, 2000
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photo: Potential tenants filled out applications on Saturday at an open house for a $1,800-a-month,
one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. Gene Fong, who was showing the apartment, said about 40 people turned out.
(Darcy Padilla for the New York Times)
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
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In San Francisco, Renters Are Supplicants The New York Times June 6, 2000, Tuesda