San Francisco renters faced the tightest market of any U.S. city tracked by rental platform Apartment List in June. Just 2.2% of multifamily units on the platform were vacant — about 1 in 50 — compared with 7.2% nationally.
The national vacancy rate has been stable over the past year, but in San Francisco, where demand for housing has rushed back amid the artificial intelligence boom, available rentals are becoming even rarer. Apartment List estimated that the city’s rate was 3.7% in 2025 and 4% in 2019.
With renters forced to compete for a shrinking market, more may have to find roommates or settle for leasing a bedroom rather than a full unit. The competition has contributed to a 15% year-over-year jump in median asking rents, according to Apartment List.
Apartment List’s vacancy data only covers properties on its platform that have at least 10 rental units, meaning the trends may largely reflect bigger, professionally managed buildings. Still, the data echoes anecdotes from some renters who say looking for a new apartment means going up against dozens of other applicants.
Some of that competition has already begun to spread to San Francisco’s neighbors. Oakland’s rental vacancy rate was cut in half, from 9% in June 2024 — one of the highest percentages among large U.S. cities covered by Apartment List — to 4.5% in June 2026.
Rents in both Oakland and San Francisco, where a combination of low demand and new supply softened rents during the pandemic, remain far below their 2019 levels after adjusting for inflation. But their prices and vacancy rates are both moving against the trend of many other major cities. This year, San Francisco’s vacancy rate dipped below that of New York City, where the share of empty units has remained roughly flat since 2023, for the first time since 2018.
Cities where many apartments remain unfilled have generally offered more room for tenants to shop around — or negotiate lower prices. In Houston, which in recent years experienced a residential construction boom, the vacancy rate remains above 8%, with median asking rents dropping by more than 6% from June 2025 to June 2026.
Houston and other Texas cities became popular destinations for remote workers during the pandemic, causing housing costs there to surge. Now that many of those workers have been called back to the office, new apartments are struggling to fill units, forcing owners to cut prices. In Denton, Texas, the vacancy rate surged from 4.9% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2025. Since then, rents have dropped by 14%.
It will probably be some time before new apartments join San Francisco’s skyline. While city officials have implemented policies intended to ramp up construction, building costs in the Bay Area remain high and the region remains far behind its housing goals.
Still, there are some signs of movement. Applications for new homes in San Francisco spiked last year, indicating that the city’s rising rents and home prices have begun to attract developers’ attention.