New York has overtaken San Francisco as the most expensive city in the United States for the first time since 2014, according to a new report from real estate rental website Zumper. The website found that the median rent for an one-bedroom apartment in New York was $2810, the highest in the United States, followed by San Francisco with a median rent of $2800.

This is the first time that New York has topped the list since Zumper began tracking the data in 2014.

The shift highlights the steady and dramatic changes that have taken place in both cities over the past two years. New York has been hit hard by the epidemic, but demand has improved since then.

This is not the case in San Francisco. In December, it was reported that as many as 89000 families had left the city since the outbreak began. Some residents fled to places such as Austin or Miami, while others simply moved to the suburbs of San Francisco.

Now, in Facebook IncAnd TwitterTelecommuting is still the norm among technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay area, which is also reflected in rents: in early 2019, the median rent for an one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was $800 higher than that in New York, according to Zumper-by early 2020, the median rent in San Francisco was still $520 higher than in New York, but by January it was only $330 higher.

The Zumper reports that the median rent for an one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco has risen only 4.5 per cent since the beginning of January, compared with 19.6 per cent in New York, although it is still down 20 per cent from March 2020.