Oh, brother, the Apartment Guide website is boring straight down to the pain point.
It’s showing just how much you — you poor, overextended Bay Area renter — pay for a single square foot of apartment space.
Looking at active listings for one-bedroom units, the website concludes that Palo Alto — where the average cost per square foot is $4.58 — ranks as the most expensive city in the country. And what do you get for paying through the nose? Not much — typically a 600-square-foot apartment that rents on average for $2,750 monthly.
Judged on the same per-square-foot basis, Apartment Guide concludes that five of the nation’s 10 most expensive rental markets are in the Bay Area. Palo Alto leads the way, with Menlo Park ($4.16 per square foot), San Francisco ($4.08), South San Francisco ($3.79) and Berkeley (also $3.79) close behind.
What’s the takeaway?
That we should all move to Logan, Utah, where apartments rent for $0.23 per square foot. It’s the most reasonable market in the U.S., according to Apartment Guide. The average price of a one-bedroom apartment there is $345, and the typical apartment floor plan spreads across 1,500 square feet.
Logan’s got skiing, too.
If you want to know where you get the most (or least) bang for your buck, go right here and read the website’s report.
Photo: An apartment complex under construction in downtown San Jose in 2015. (Karl Mondon/Mercury News)