“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,” reports The San Francisco Chronicle.

“The average rent for all types of units in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metropolitan area in the three months ended Sept. 30 was $1,339 per month, up 1.2 percent from the previous quarter and 2.1 percent from the year-ago period, according to RealFacts, a market research firm in Novato.”