It's time for your semi-monthly reminder that the apartment rental market has become completely, demoralizingly, grotesquely expensive and competitive. KQED just published this piece by Sam Harnett who relays a first-person tale of woe of hunting for a place to live with his girlfriend in the most desirable neighborhoods in town, and encountering landlords who were all too pleased to let bidding wars rule the day.

Then you have Paul McCloud, a self-described 25-year-old "asshole" who just moved here from Texas with his boyfriend to work in the tech industry who is gladly paying $3,900 for a two-bedroom in the Haight. But he feels a little bad about it, and says the city or someone should be doing something to protect the diversity of the city. Also, he notes that at the upper end of the apartment price range, i.e. over $1,500 per bedroom, the competition from other renters was much less fierce.

We were on our own hunt not too long ago, and it did seem truly hopeless if what you wanted was an apartment within batting distance of Dolores Park or a corporate shuttle stop and you were not a self-made millionaire with squeaky-clean credit, or a Google/Apple/Facebook executive with multiple degrees and no debt. And even with those things, if the apartment was at all cool, you were likely fighting with about ten more people just like you. So yeah, depressing.

Previously: A Look at What $6,500/Month Will Get You In SoMa/South Beach
Another Day, Another Story About How Scary The Apartment Market Is Getting
Behold the Secret Corporate Shuttle-Stop Map of S.F.

[KQED]