Bay Area apartment rents rise as job market heats up

From the Chronicle today, "A strengthening Bay Area job market helped push apartment rents and occupancy rates slightly higher in the third quarter, although renting is still a bargain compared with buying."

"Given that there's basically no new construction in the Bay Area, then probably that would indicate the market is at the balance point where landlords can increase rents without too much fear of leaving an equivalent amount of occupancy," said Chris Bates, RealFacts' marketing director.

Going back to yesterday's post about the slew of ranting articles in the Guardian, this only serves to point out the other side of the coin. If there's no new housing to buy, and there's not enough housing to rent, what's gonna happen? Prices will rise across the board, buying will become more attractive (vs. renting), and more people will end up being evicted.

Seems like cutting off the supply of new housing isn't such a great idea, now is it?