Which S.F. neighborhood has the highest rents?

One-bedrooms for around $4,000

1000 Chestnut Street in Russian Hill is offering one-bedrooms for around $4,100.
For a complete list of 17 examples

Russian Hill just barely eked past South Beach as the most expensive one-bedroom rental in the city, according to new data from Zumper.com. The northern neighborhood came in at a median rent of $4,000 a month for a one-bedroom unit versus South Beach’s $3,995 median. (A look at what you can get for around that price is above.) However, Russian Hill may not hold the title for long: South Beach one-bedroom rents were up 5.1% between August and September 2014, whereas Russian Hill, the Marina ($3,650) and Pacific Heights ($3,600) were all flat.
Some higher-end neighborhoods actually saw rental prices decline during the same time period. Mission Bay/Dog Patch has a median price of $3,473 for a one-bedroom, but that’s an almost 3% decline. The neighborhood was down almost 8% in price per bedroom figures ($2,948 per bedroom) when all apartment sizes are taken into account—the biggest per bedroom month-over-month drop in the city.
The Castro also saw declining rents, especially amongst two-bedrooms; its $4,075 median for a two-bedroom apartment is down almost 17% month over month and the neighborhood is down 1% in per bedroom costs when all apartment sizes are taken into account. Hayes Valley was down over 6% for its one-bedrooms ($2,998) and more than 2% for its two-bedrooms ($4,395) but the neighborhood was up 6% in per bedroom prices overall—one of the largest overall increases in the city—indicating that perhaps larger units are gaining in popularity in the family-friendly area.
Other neighborhoods seem to be getting more popular with singles. Telegraph Hill one-bedrooms were up nearly 17% month over month ($3,150) while its two-bedroom listings sank 1.2% to $4,200. Civic Center’s smaller units are also on the rise: one-bedrooms are up to a median of $2,800 (a nearly 8%) increase, making it more expensive than a one-bedroom in Bernal Heights ($2,650), the Mission ($2,500) and the Lower Haight ($2,395).
Those prices are all below the median citywide for one-bedrooms, which at $3,200 a month was the highest in the nation, beating out even New York ($2,950). However, in a neighborhood-versus-neighborhood match up, the Big Apple still comes out on top. Rents in the Flatiron District, Tribeca and DUMBO all top $4,000 a month for a one-bedroom.




Original Article and Photo Sourced From: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2014/10/14/which-s-f-neighborhood-has-the-highest-rents/

Airbnb Says It Will Start Collecting Hotel Taxes In San Francisco

Airbnb said it will start collecting San Francisco’s 14 percent hotel tax on behalf of hosts today. The move counters critics who’ve claimed that the company has willfully dodged taxes to get ahead of traditional competitors in the hotel industry.
But as Airbnb has grown up and is now poised to command a possible $10 billion valuation from private investors, they’ve said they want to play by city rules.

David Hantman, Airbnb’s Head of Global Public Policy, wrote today:

“We have repeatedly said that we believe our community in San Francisco should pay its fair share of taxes. We know from countless discussions with our hosts that they want to pay taxes, but some of these rules are arcane and difficult to follow. Some hosts have even tried to pay taxes in San Francisco and been turned away.”

The move follows the company’s announcement last week that it had reached a partnership with the city of Portland to pay transient lodging taxes, work with the city’s tourism bureau and offer guests the chance to donate to local causes. The company is hoping that the new initiative, called “Shared Cities,” will get adopted by local governments internationally. Airbnb also said last week that if it were paying hotel taxes in New York, it would be generating about $21 million per year for the city.
San Francisco charges a 14 percent hotel occupancy tax, which may generate $274 million in revenue for the city this year. The taxes would get tacked onto a guest’s bill as an extra charge on top of the nightly rate and Airbnb’s fee.
Before, Airbnb would send out tax forms like 1099s and W-9s for hosts to report their earnings. This, of course, is a lot of extra paperwork and it’s likely that many Airbnb hosts just probably didn’t bother with reporting their earnings from hosting. Update: Airbnb says this hotel tax collection comes on top of taxes on earned income. So yes, hosts still have to do their 1099s.
San Francisco city supervisor David Chiu has been crafting new regulation for short-term stays on platforms like Airbnb for almost two years. The issue is that city regulations have proven politically difficult to update, especially given the tense climate around housing affordability in the city, zoning restrictions and concerns from neighbors. Chiu’s legislation isn’t expected to override lease agreements, meaning that tenants still have to abide by the rules their landlords have established.


Article & Photo Taken From:  http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/31/airbnb-sf-hotel-tax/