This is also my first thought when people say "Well, nobody wants to move to the Bay area anymore, everybody's leaving". Well, why is the rent still so high?
Rent in SF is going down actually. 2 years ago we moved into our apartment with my girlfriend and whatever price they mentioned our immediate response "YES WHERE DO I SIGN" just because we were so happy to even find a vacancy at all.
1 year ago they wanted to raise our rent $400 (about 6%), we negotiated it down to a $40 increase. Pretty good right?
Well, this year we negotiated our rent down by almost $300. In SoMa. Our rent is now cheaper than it was when we first moved in.
Next year we're hoping to move to a bigger place for the same price or cheaper. It's probably going to be possible.
Fun fact: Our apartment building considers it a success if they get 50% of their tenants to renew the lease.