12 mega landlords own majority of the San Francisco Bay Area
Over the past couple of decades, the San Francisco Bay Area, known as a hub of diverse, progressive, and freethinking spirits, was hit with an influx of transplants recruited to build the future of technology. The rise of Silicon Valley and its innovation came at the cost of eradicating the soul of America’s anti-capitalist capital along with affordable rent in the metro area.
As former and current residents direct their frustrations toward gentrification and the outsiders, new reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle maps out 12 power players who own the majority of the area’s real estate.
After a year of culling through 2.3 million unique records with the help of machine learning—and good old-fashioned journalism—reporters at the Chronicle created a map highlighting property ownership in nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.
The networks of property owners include Veritas Investments, Invitation Homes, Michael Marr, Greystar, Woodmont/Tad Taube, Equity Residential, John Vidovich, Neill Sullivan/REO Homes, Essex, UDR Inc., Tricon Residential, AvalonBay, and Ardenbrook/Ardenwood. They’ve become the antithesis of the Bay Area community and have found themselves on the receiving end of lawsuits by residents who claim maltreatment and foul play.
