A Policy Analysis Report from San Francisco’s Budget and Legislative Analyst Office estimates that the shift to remote working has resulted in 147,303 fewer office workers in downtown San Francisco (“Downtown”) each workday. The report cites to an NBER Working Paper which estimates that workers in San Francisco spent an average of $168 per week near their workplaces, prior to the pandemic. Thus, expenditures Downtown by office workers alone would be reduced by approximately $1.2 billion per year if an office attendance rate of 40 percent holds into the future.

According to the report (citing data from JLL), the office vacancy rate Downtown increased from 5.2 percent in Q4-2019 to 25.1 percent in Q4-2022. Among Downtown businesses, business tax obligations declined by an estimated $144 million between calendar years 2019 and 2021 from $862 to $718 million and comparing all of 2019 to all of 2021, sales tax revenue generated Downtown (zip codes 94111, 94114 and 94105), declined by 38.6 percent, more than the citywide reduction of 20.7 percent, according to the report.

Last Updated on March 8, 2023 by Ramin Seddiq