Emeryville Went The YIMBY Way: Now It Has The Most Expensive Rent In The East Bay

 The More Apartments We Build, The More Expensive It Is To Rent Here

City Council's YIMBY Gambit Failure

Building More Was Supposed To Bring Cheaper Rent

What Happened?

News Analysis

Rising apartment rents in Emeryville have eclipsed neighboring cities, leaving our city the most expensive place to rent in the East Bay amid an unprecedented apartment building binge and calling into question a long standing ‘supply and demand’ master narrative that has seized the housing policy debate here.  According to real estate brokerage and consumer search platforms, rents in Emeryville, formerly middle income affordable, are now shown to be pulling ahead of Piedmont and Walnut Creek, despite having built more new apartment units per capita than any other city in the East Bay; an overturning of overly simplistic supply side economic theory pushed by YIMBY.

In 2024, Emeryville emerged as the top East Bay most expensive city for one-bedroom apartment rentals, with prices now peaking around $2,790, a 16.3% increase. Emeryville's significant rent growth and apartment building growth made it a standout, often surpassing the most expensive spots in other parts of the Bay Area.  The more Emeryville builds, the more expensive Emeryville becomes as it turns out, in spite of publicly proclaimed YIMBY and Council majority countering dogma. 
 

Similar to President Ronald Reagan’s oft cited claim that wealth will “trickle down” to the middle class as a reason for why rich people’s taxes must be cut, America’s middle class was left waiting for the wealth to trickle down, just as residents here are waiting for Emeryville’s rents to fall amid the ongoing housing boom driven by a didactic YIMBY and schoolmarmish Council majority.

Sky High Rent Increases Despite Unprecedented Housing Boom
According to the search platform Zumper, to which the City of Emeryville defers, on April 1st, an average one bedroom unit in Emeryville rents for $2725 ($2682 according to Apartment finder.com and $3021 at Rent cafe.com).  In Walnut Creek, a one bedroom unit can be had for $2599, while Oakland, Berkeley and Fremont average is $1995, $2295, and $2377 respectively.

All the increasing rent costs in Emeryville have occurred concurrently with a massive housing boom, like no other East Bay city has experienced.  Data shows Emeryville increased its housing stock between 2020 and 2024, with more than 600 new housing units added, making our town one of the fasted growing cities in California according to the SF Chronicle.  At the same time, the Chronicle called Emeryville's City Council "One of the most YIMBY city councils in California".   For decades, Emeryville has beaten the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) recommended housing numbers - something no other East Bay city has done.  All this growth was supposed to drive down rents said YIMBY and their Emeryville City Council sycophants.

YIMBY California is a Sacramento based municipal housing policy lobbying group supported by State Senator Scott Wiener and funded by real estate investment trust corporations and developers.  YIMBY has long advocated for removing local municipalities' ability to set their own public housing policy, deferring instead to YIMBY's laissez faire deregulation model.  YIMBY has praised Emeryville for singularly following their directives, citing former Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters as well as current Council member Courtney Welch and Planning Commissioner Dianne Martinez as especially helpful to their cause.  

The dichotomy between Emeryville’s unprecedented multi-year housing boom and rapidly rising rent prices here should offer a reality gob smack to the City Council majority and other YIMBY apologists.  So far, there has not been any acknowledgement from any pro-YIMBY forces of this inconvenient high building/high rent dichotomy.  Indeed, that stubbornness to accept basic facts and indisputable numbers betrays an increasing zealotry among the Council majority. 

Further, in their rush to support YIMBY, the City Council majority have precluded any chance to get popular parts of Emeryville’s General Plan implemented.  For instance, developers with approved housing projects are supposed to materially help support the building of new parks but the Council majority has stopped even asking them (at YIMBY’s insistance).  Because park acreage is supposed to be based on the number of residents in Emeryville, new housing projects are the mechanism that drives the need for new parks as well as the money for the building of new parks.  However, with YIMBY in charge, every year, Emeryville falls farther behind on the park goals stipulated by the General Plan.  Emeryville is now the worst, most under served city in the East Bay for parks.

Emeryville elected officials should be the kind of people to be able to pivot once it becomes clear their ideas aren’t working.  Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of Council (majority).  It appears these four Council members of ours have been captured ideologically by the materially driven YIMBY.  The people of Emeryville deserve rational public policy that serves them, not real estate trust corporations and developers who seek to double down on their private profit housing policy.  

We reached out to Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur, Vice Mayor Matthew Solomon, Council members David Mourra and Courtney Welch as well as City Manager LaTonya Bellow for this story but none responded.  Council member Kalimah Priforce is a fan of local housing control and the sole YIMBY critic among the Council members.

Emeryville is one of the fastest growing cities in California: HERE

Emeryville's City Council the most YIMBY controlled city council in California: HERE

Emeryville is the 6th most expensive place to live in the Bay Area. Source: Zumper.com

Emeryville has the fastest growing rent in the Bay Area. Source: Zumper.com

Emeryville is now the most expensive place to rent in the East Bay. Source: Zumper.com