San Francisco rents are plunging to the lowest levels in 6 years, even as the US housing market stages a comeback

• San Francisco rents continue to plunge, according to new data from the real-estate platform Zumper.
• Rents in the city as well as other expensive havens like Manhattan are falling more than the country as a whole.
• However, data doesn't support online debates about a supposed death of cities.
• The US real-estate market remains strong in both cities and suburban areas.

Much of the US housing market has staged a surprising comeback after the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into home sales and rentals. But in San Francisco, it's a tenant's market.

New data from the real-estate company Zumper released Tuesday shows median rental prices for a one-bedroom apartment in the city have fallen to $3,040 per month, the lowest point since the firm started tracking data in 2014. The glut appears to be fueled by an exodus of tech and other corporate workers from the city amid work-from-home orders that have persisted in-step with the US' failure to contain the virus's spread.

San Francisco's real-estate slump, while similar to other isolated trends in expensive US cities like New York, doesn't follow a national trend. From July 2019 through July 2020, Zumper's data shows about a 1% growth in rental prices, despite a brief coronavirus-related decline. That pattern is confirmed by data from the National Association of Realtors that shows home sales prices, which can affect rental rates, up 8.5% over the previous year.

The stark difference in San Francisco's real-estate market compared to the US as a whole has fueled debate, especially online, about a supposed mass exodus from cities to suburbs and rural areas. Data shows that so far this isn't quite the case.

"Some faint signals may have emerged in certain places, but by and large, the data show that suburban housing markets have not strengthened at a disproportionately rapid pace compared to urban markets," Zillow said in an August report. "Both region types appear to be hot sellers' markets right now."

Still, isolated shifts are occurring with noted impact. New York City's Manhattan has a record glut of empty apartments as wealthy workers flee to greener pastures in Connecticut, where real-estate agents have said they can't find homes to sell fast enough. But even in Brooklyn, mere minutes from Manhattan's central core, the same trends haven't played out. Rents there have remained sticky as those in Manhattan fall.

"In some regions where there is a divergence, the discrepancy can be explained by trends that were unfolding before the pandemic," Zillow said in its report, noting that its web traffic data shows suburban home listings haven't grown in any relative popularity. "For-sale suburban homes attract more than three times as much of Zillow's traffic as urban listings do, but that was the case last year as well. "