Bay Area Has Country’s Most Prosperous Renters

San Francisco and Silicon Valley have the most prosperous renters in the country, according to a new report from Yardi rental listing site RentCafe.

The average renter makes nearly $150,000 per year in Sunnyvale — the highest in the nation — with San Francisco coming in second at more than $105,000. San Jose was fourth, after third place Arlington, Virginia, at nearly $90,000.

Sunnyvale is by far the best in the nation when it comes to “local economy vitality” and “quality of life,” according to RentCafe’s Joanna Truscan. The latter is due to the combination of high-quality schools, convenient services and amenities, natural beauty and relatively little car congestion. Yet it ranked as only the 80th best place to be a renter in the country because of the high cost of living.

“With over 95 percent occupancy, the rental market is highly competitive, with more than 13 applicants per available apartment,” Truscan said via email, and the cost of living, including groceries and utilities, are 124 percent above the national average.

Likewise, San Francisco ranked second for quality of life — getting the maximum score in access to natural amenities — and fourth for economic vitality. But it lost points for its higher cost of living, which is nearly 80 percent above the national average. Plus, its older housing stock means that only one-third of apartments offer the high-end amenities that renters want, Truscan said.

Yet because it is not as expensive as Sunnyvale, nor is the rental market as competitive, it ended up as the 46th-best market for tenants overall.

Charleston, South Carolina was ranked the top spot for renters nationwide, scoring high for affordability, local economy, quality of housing and cost of living. The South is the nation’s best overall region for renters with 36 of the top 50 spots in Rent Cafe’s ranking. Looking only at the Western U.S., Scottsdale, Arizona ranked first, with San Francisco the only spot in all of California to make the top 10.