One of the thousand or so rental data sources out there has called our attention to how "average rents" around the Bay Area currently compare. And while this data has to be taken in context, it provides support for what many have complained about in recent years about the South Bay — namely that housing is even more scarce and expensive down there than in the city.

The data source this time is Yardi Matrix, which provides rental data to developers and real estate investors based on surveys of buildings with 50+ units in 133 markets nationwide. Curbed SF picked up the new figures via the RentCafe Blog, which mapped out the Bay averages for comparison. And it should also be noted that Yardi Matrix's data is only based on some small sample sizes, so could be skewed.

But with all that in mind, the highest average rents in the Bay right now are in Palo Alto ($3,857/mo) and Menlo Park ($4,368/mo), with San Francisco clocking in at $3,697 according to this data for June. That SF figure is actually right in line with what SF-based Zumper found as its median rent figure for June, $3,700/mo — but again, this is likely based almost entirely on big, newer buildings, and not on the kind of flats you find in Victorians on Craigslist.

For perspective, back in June 2015, a full four years ago, Zumper said that the median one-bedroom rent in SF was $3,500/mo, and median two-bedrooms were $4,700. That same month, Socketsite quoted the median rent as $3,458. And this was while SFGate and others were parroting a sensational headline, borne out of Zillow data, that SF's median rent was $4,225 — a figure that was based only on condos and single-family homes for rent.

In short, the rent is too damn high, still, and so it goes.