Today there are nearly 750 listings for apartments on Craigs List, and 300 rooommate wanted situations.

My brother, a highly qualified computer guy, just applied for a job — along with 2,000 other applicants. [He didn't get the job, but he got narrowed to the Final Four.]

I've been wanting to move to Paradise for some time, but still don't understand when the landlords are going to budge from the sky high prices.

Office vacancy is at an all-time high. And, I just checked with U-Haul — it's cheaper to rent a truck from Virginia to San Fran [3,300 mile allowance], than it is from Virignia to Austin [1,700 mile allowance].

Maybe that's because all the U-Hauls are headed away from the Bay and they need the equipment!

By the way, rental prices in Austin, another great city struggling with a boom hangover, have dropped more than the prices in SF.

My brother thinks the landlords won't budge for several reasons:

1. Californians, esp. SFers, are reality-resistant.

2. Too many people bought at the top of the market and have big mortgages — but can't get anyone to pay dot-com era prices. Glug, glug, they're underwater.

3. Rent control — lowering prices would lock them in at a lower rate, and since they're still hoping for a turnaround [see reason #1], they are still sticking it out.

My brother told me today he got a rent reduction from his landlord, who took the hit because some rent is better than no rent.

He also told me, since he's unemployed, he will call a couple "For Rent" numbers every day and offer them half what they're asking, for cruelty's sake.

I don't think San Francisco has seen the bottom of this one yet, and it'll be interesting to see when people start accepting it.