Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, a regular column exploring what you can rent for a set dollar amount in different neighborhoods. Is one person's studio another person's townhouse? Let's find out. Today's price: $5,200.
↑ We've grown so weary of landlords barring pets that today's Comparisons are all 100 percent feline and canine compliant across the board. (Someone has to take a stand.) The overall pet friendliness starts in Buena Vista, in a two bed, two bath townhouse with a view of Corona Heights Park that makes it look like an edited scene from one of Peter Jackson's many Tolkien movies. The 11-unit building looks a bit blah on the outside, but once you're in the front door it's a knockout. The price here is $4,999, because apparently your landlord loves making change for five grand.
↑ Over in Bernal Heights, this flat sits on the northern side of the neighborhood, closer the freeway than the park (well, except for Precita Park). But you may not notice, since the little white facade is as quaint as can be. The whole thing is an impressive four bedrooms (there are two attic rooms, which explains how they could possibly have space) and 1,300 feet, which we suppose it would have to be when you're charging $5,200/month.
↑ Our only genuine single-family home today (the thing San Franciscans crave above all else, at least so says the research) is this unassuming blue number in Glen Park. We've visited this spot before, with its bamboo floors, mint-green bathroom, and three bedrooms offered for $5,195/month, but it's popped back up to the top of the listings, so we're revisiting it. Maybe Comparisons readers will take more of a liking to it than renters have.
↑ If you're feeling the pull toward something closer to downtown, here's a three-level loft in SoMa. (The topmost level is just a loft bedroom, of course, perched above the rest of the unit like a cat tree.) It's two beds and two and a half baths, with all of the big bank of windows, 18 foot ceilings, and track lighting you'd expect. The price: $5,200/month even, garage and patio included.
↑ And on condo watch, with the vibe on the downtown-centric units starting to wear out a little bit, we cast our eye to Noe Valley, where a two-bedroom unit on 26th Street like this one will run you $5,190/month these days. (The building in question is actually at something of a corner spot triangulated between Noe Valley, the Mission, and Bernal Heights, but it's tagged itself Noe Valley for marketing purposes--a potentially revealing decision). The place fancies itself "high-end," and in those very words no less.