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San Francisco’s rental market has reached another milestone. The city’s median rent for a two-bedroom apartment climbed to $6,020 a month in July, the first time it has crossed the $6,000 mark, according to real estate company Zumper.

That is a 25.9% jump from a year earlier. Median rent for a one-bedroom apartment also hit a record $4,180, up 22.9% over the same period.

San Francisco now leads the country in annual rent growth, Zumper said. While New York City still has the nation’s highest median rent for one-bedroom apartments at $4,560, San Francisco has pulled far ahead for two-bedroom units. The median rent now sits $570 above New York’s.

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Fewer Apartments Are Fueling Higher Rents

Zumper pointed to one reason rents continue climbing in San Francisco. Active rental listings in the city have fallen about 30% from the year before. At the same time, new apartment construction has slowed, while demand has stayed strong. Zumper also points to AI-sector hiring and a limited pipeline of new housing as factors putting more pressure on available apartments.

“The supply wave that reshaped this market is receding, and demand is gradually moving into the space it leaves behind,” Zumper CEO Shawn Mullahy said. “Two-bedroom rents turning positive year-over-year is the first real fingerprint that supply and demand are beginning to come back into balance.”

Supply Tells a Very Different Story Across the Country

The national picture looks much calmer. The median U.S. rent for a one-bedroom apartment stands at $1,520, unchanged from 2025. Two-bedroom rents reached $1,906, up 0.1% annually. That marks the first year-over-year increase for the national two-bedroom median since June 2025.

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According to Zumper, local markets continue to move in different directions. In Florida, Miami has started to stabilize as newly built apartments find tenants, while Tampa still has enough supply to push rents lower. Texas remains the country’s biggest correction story after years of apartment construction. Austin posted the nation’s steepest annual drop in one-bedroom rents at 16.4%, followed by Houston at 14.4% and Dallas at 9.6%.

Story Continues

“What the national figures hide, though, is that there really isn’t an average housing market right now,” Mullahy said. “Where new supply is being absorbed, rents are beginning to firm. Where inventory is still building, renters continue to hold the leverage.”

Rising Rents Create Opportunities for Property Investors

For renters, numbers like these can make homeownership or investing feel even further away. Yet rising rents also show why many investors continue to view residential real estate as a long-term wealth builder.

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This article San Francisco’s Median Rent for 2-Bedroom Apartment Tops $6K a Month for the First Time, Up Nearly 26% From Year Before originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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