You may want to squash those dreams over having your own studio is the TL. Lord knows we have. See, according to Curbed -- who has killed out Monday buzz, one that even Michelle Obama's jarringly bright red dress can't bring back -- rental prices have leaped more than 20% over the last two years in the city's cheapest neighborhoods: Downtown/Civic Center, the Haight and the Western Addition.

What's more, vacancy rates are standing still around 2-3%. Even with rent control being safe for now, "[t]his is dangerous stuff for the city's middle class," says Susie Cagle. And for the fistful of middle class ilk still left in the City, we agree. And those newfangled SROs are starting to look more and more tempting by the day. Alas. (Curbed)

Update: However, points out SFist commenter jcsnotes, "a lot has happened in the past 3 months," so we could, in fact, be in "the middle of what could be a drop in rents," but we'd have no way of knowing when using the 2006 prices as a benchmark. So: Monday buzz? Back on.