important wrinkle: in SF, leases are (can be) long term arrangements, i.e. limited annual rent increases and very hard to evict. Landlords won't drop prices if

important wrinkle: in SF, leases are (can be) long term arrangements, i.e. limited annual rent increases and very hard to evict. Landlords won't drop prices if it locks them into a bad economic situation, or even if they perceive that rents will rise quickly in the next few years. also in general, with real estate owners are very reluctant to drop prices and "lose" money - instead, prices rise more slowly and/or stagnate. If you see a big price drop, that typically means the seller/landlord is desperate.