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Re:Why So Many Musicians Are Leaving San Francisco for L.A. by TheCoelacanth on Thursday January 16, 2014 @11:33AM (#7070350)
In DC, average rents decreased by 2% last year, largely because of increased supply[1], so it is possible. Somewhere like SF, it's likely that demand would increase faster than supply could so prices would continue to go up, but at least the increase in supply would slow down the price increase.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/washington-faces-ap...

Re:Why So Many Musicians Are Leaving San Francisco for L.A. by wwweston on Thursday January 16, 2014 @02:04PM (#7071708)
The cited article on DC does give some new construction numbers and credit that as part of the trajectory. However, there's also this bit:

"Job growth in the region, which is heavily focused on the government, has been too weak to support the construction, said Greg Leisch, chief executive officer of Delta Associates. Federal contracting has declined by $7 billion in the last two years and the spending cuts known as sequestration have limited employment and demand for rentals, he said.

“The supply would have been consistent with Washington’s job performance had the federal government not shrunk,”

In other words, despite the increased supply, had the fundamentals of the local economic activity stayed the same, they would have only matched demand at best, and prices probably would have stayed stable/increasing.

It looks to me like this at least as much another example of a price reduction from a demand drop as it is a price reduction from increased supply, if not more.