Study: apartment construction booming in parts of Bay Area, but units are not cheap

Apartment construction is booming across U.S. cities — and, according to a new RentCafe study, two zip codes in the Bay Area have been seeing a building surge.

However, more than half of these new apartments are high-end, and only a few of them are affordable for the low- to middle-income renters, according to the report.  

The 94103 zip code (South Of Market) in San Francisco stands out as the 15th busiest zip code for apartment construction nationwide, with 4,379 units built in the span of five years. These new units in 94103 translate into a 66% uptick in inventory.

Following closely is Oakland’s 94612 zip code (Downtown). It emerged as the 16th busiest zip nationwide, with 4,188 new apartments built over the last five years. This zip code underwent a remarkable transformation: the number of new apartments more than doubled the prior inventory (103% increase in supply).

Overall, U.S. cities are buzzing with new apartment buildings with 1.2 million new rental units having popped up across the country since 2018, the report notes.