<story><title>San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-13/san-francisco-studio-apartment-rents-plunge-31-most-in-u-s</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mxcrossb</author><text>This is the mindset I really don’t understand though. Sure your company can say “we’re all remote” today, but they can just as easily say “everyone has to come back” in six months. Or “everyone doesn’t have to, but those who don’t are the first laid off next time”. I’ve been fully remote since March, so I’ve been weighing this for awhile”</text></item><item><author>zdragnar</author><text>As a counter anecdote, I know three people from the bay area who moved out during covidtide, but had already planned the move beforehand. (This is a very high percentage of people I know from the bay area, hence the anecdote).&lt;p&gt;All had the same rationale: taxes and housing were simply far too high when they could work remotely and live anywhere else. Sure, you don&amp;#x27;t get the same outdoors, food or retail scene, but plenty of places have those things too.&lt;p&gt;I imagine the move to working remotely has made that move possible for more people than before, but those I know aren&amp;#x27;t making temporary moves, they are buying houses.</text></item><item><author>burlesona</author><text>I would say the city being “closed” is the major driver. Among my group of ~40 coworkers, about 30 (including me) have left the city. As far as I know all but one were renting.&lt;p&gt;Everyone who left gave the following rationale:&lt;p&gt;- we can work remotely so move wherever or nomad now&lt;p&gt;- SF is not very fun during the pandemic&lt;p&gt;- WFH in my tiny apartment is much less enjoyable than when I was working in the office and didn’t spend much time in the apartment&lt;p&gt;- therefore I’m moving for a year or so until things fully reopen&lt;p&gt;Now I think the question is what does the eventual full reopening look like and how long does it take?&lt;p&gt;Many people will move back, because many office jobs will return, and many people love city life and the office work environment (including me).&lt;p&gt;But the longer things take, the more people get established elsewhere, and the more companies decide to make remote permanent and don’t reopen an office, the more I think this market reset in SF will be long-lasting.&lt;p&gt;As other posters have said it’s a welcome relief though. Prices are &lt;i&gt;still&lt;/i&gt; very high, and new construction remains far from sufficient to keep up with demand.&lt;p&gt;(edit: typo)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>Many companies have publicly stated they will allow permanent work from home [1]. Many others have said so privately to their workers. As more companies adopt this, this provides more options to those who relocate and whose employer tries to pull them back.&lt;p&gt;Keep a long runway in an emergency fund, keep your professional network warm, always be ready to bounce if your employer tries to change your quality of life for the worse (mandatory return to an office somewhere, for example). (Disclosure: This is how I operate, and have worked from home for over 7 years.)&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.flexjobs.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;companies-switching-remote-work-long-term&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.flexjobs.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;companies-switching-remot...&lt;/a&gt; (&amp;quot;27 Companies That Have Switched to Long-Term Remote Work&amp;quot;)</text></comment>
<story><title>San Francisco Apartment Rents Crater Up to 31%, Most in U.S.</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-13/san-francisco-studio-apartment-rents-plunge-31-most-in-u-s</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mxcrossb</author><text>This is the mindset I really don’t understand though. Sure your company can say “we’re all remote” today, but they can just as easily say “everyone has to come back” in six months. Or “everyone doesn’t have to, but those who don’t are the first laid off next time”. I’ve been fully remote since March, so I’ve been weighing this for awhile”</text></item><item><author>zdragnar</author><text>As a counter anecdote, I know three people from the bay area who moved out during covidtide, but had already planned the move beforehand. (This is a very high percentage of people I know from the bay area, hence the anecdote).&lt;p&gt;All had the same rationale: taxes and housing were simply far too high when they could work remotely and live anywhere else. Sure, you don&amp;#x27;t get the same outdoors, food or retail scene, but plenty of places have those things too.&lt;p&gt;I imagine the move to working remotely has made that move possible for more people than before, but those I know aren&amp;#x27;t making temporary moves, they are buying houses.</text></item><item><author>burlesona</author><text>I would say the city being “closed” is the major driver. Among my group of ~40 coworkers, about 30 (including me) have left the city. As far as I know all but one were renting.&lt;p&gt;Everyone who left gave the following rationale:&lt;p&gt;- we can work remotely so move wherever or nomad now&lt;p&gt;- SF is not very fun during the pandemic&lt;p&gt;- WFH in my tiny apartment is much less enjoyable than when I was working in the office and didn’t spend much time in the apartment&lt;p&gt;- therefore I’m moving for a year or so until things fully reopen&lt;p&gt;Now I think the question is what does the eventual full reopening look like and how long does it take?&lt;p&gt;Many people will move back, because many office jobs will return, and many people love city life and the office work environment (including me).&lt;p&gt;But the longer things take, the more people get established elsewhere, and the more companies decide to make remote permanent and don’t reopen an office, the more I think this market reset in SF will be long-lasting.&lt;p&gt;As other posters have said it’s a welcome relief though. Prices are &lt;i&gt;still&lt;/i&gt; very high, and new construction remains far from sufficient to keep up with demand.&lt;p&gt;(edit: typo)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brogrammernot</author><text>As another poster said, companies aren’t going to risk lose talent in troves if they enact a work from office policy.&lt;p&gt;When you got major companies like Twitter, google, Facebook, and others already saying WFH is a permanent option that’s put pressure on others to figure out how to make it work.&lt;p&gt;Talent is needed at many, many companies and if the talent is a.) needed and b.) good enough the company will make “exceptions” to the rule.&lt;p&gt;Enough companies make enough exceptions and it’s a mainstay policy.&lt;p&gt;Overall, the other part is that companies that now offer remote work as a permanent option may not have to pay SF salaries so that’s a bonus to the company. It’ll go both ways, the company can say I’m not requiring you to live in high COL area and we have an office in X city, we pay 10% above the market average of ~35-40 cities so they’re still competitive on pay (assumption being that most companies move to this model, FAANG may overpay still but that’s always been the case) so now what do you do?</text></comment>