Free edition The Rent Hacker SF North Bay, CA · July 27, 2026 3,101 listings scanned · 679 passed screen · 71 beat the S&P 500 We scan ~3000 listings weekly so you don’t have to. |
This week, our screen ran across 9 ZIPs in North Bay. The funnel: | Active listings, North Bay metro | 3,101 | | Passed market-research screen | 679 | | Cleared S&P 500 on paper | 71 | | This week's top 5 | 5 |
Assumptions: 3% down, 2-year owner-occupy, then full rental. 10-year hold vs S&P 500 total return. This week we finished the North Bay knowledge bases, our per-ZIP research on all nine ZIPs we screen up here, and put them at therenthacker.com/house-hacking/north-bay. Four of this week's five picks are in Vallejo and the fifth is in Fairfield, which is honest about where the math lands right now: Solano County is where the sub-$1M fourplex still pencils against the index. If you were hoping for Sonoma or Napa, the knowledge bases show you why those ZIPs are quieter this week. Read the assumptions, then check our numbers. — Danny Brown, founder · danny@therenthacker.com |
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What changed this week Exits Last week's #2, 7126 Carillon Ct in Rohnert Park, went under contract this week after we flagged it on our board. The pick found its buyer. Debuts 150 new listings hit the nine ZIPs this week, and one debuts straight at #1: a Verified fourplex in Downtown Vallejo Specific Plan, at $895,000, our strongest debut this week. |
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★ Pick #5 · Unlocked for free readers 2609 Sonoma Blvd Downtown Vallejo (Historic Core) · 94590 $499,000 · 6 bd / 3 ba · 2,200 sqft · built 1970 · 29d on market |
Wealth advantage · 10 years +$254,246 vs S&P 500 · S&P would need 12.7%/yr for 10 years to match |
Strategy Live in one unit, rent the other | Financing Owner-occupied at 3% down | Live-in rent $2,550/mo | Full rental $4,850/mo | Renter pool Ferry commuters / SF-priced-out workforce | Catalyst 6th Cycle Housing Element upzone (D-D/W core) (0.43 mi) |
The case, and the catch At $499,000, this is the cheapest way onto the board this week, a two-unit 0.43 miles from Vallejo's 6th Cycle downtown upzone. Live in the front 3-bedroom and rent the rear for $2,550/mo, or about $4,850/mo with both rented after you move out, against an S&P breakeven of 12.7%. It is sold as-is and delivered vacant, with a ~500 sq ft ground-floor commercial storefront under the owner unit, so confirm financing on the mixed-use parcel. The honest read on this week's board is that it is concentrated. Four of the five picks are in Downtown Vallejo and the fifth is in Fairfield, because Solano County is where a sub-$1M fourplex still clears the index. The strongest new signal is a Vallejo quadruplex where the seller cut $100,000 to $850,000 this week and moved its S&P breakeven to 14.5%. One caveat sits on a Fairfield fourplex in the paid lineup: it is one of three near-identical buildings a single operator is marketing together on the same block. We ran all three and publish only the best one, so you are not looking at padding. If a same-seller, same-block portfolio makes you nervous, that instinct is right, and it is why we cut the other two. The model's at therenthacker.com/methodology if you want to challenge any of the inputs. Why pick #5 is the free unlock The free edition shows you the shape: five North Bay deals that beat the index at cautious rents, four of them Vallejo fourplexes. The paid edition gives you the addresses, the corrected math after we caught a $100,000 price cut this week, and the full verification trail, including the two portfolio siblings and the mislabeled triplex we cut before you ever saw them. For $29 a month, that is the work you would otherwise do yourself across nine ZIPs. |
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Deals #1 – #4 this week · paid only The top 4 ranked deals are behind the paywall You unlocked #5 above. Each of the 4 below clears a wider S&P delta than your free pick. Addresses and breakeven math locked. |
Four of this week's five picks sit in Downtown Vallejo (94590), and three of those are within a half mile of the downtown upzone. |
Get this week's full report 5 deals cleared this week. Here's the shape of the pool you're getting: | | Median price | $499,000 | | Median S&P breakeven | 10.8% | | Median margin vs S&P | $69,312 | | By units | 23 × 1 unit (32%) · 35 × 2 units (49%) · 5 × 3 units (7%) · 8 × 4+ units (11%) |
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5 ranked deals: every correction we made, and every number we couldn't verify. Get the full report on all 5 deals that cleared the cautious-case S&P benchmark this week: address, price, and stats verified against the live listing, the cautious rent math behind every number, downside-to-best-case sensitivity on the top three, and one-click calculator imports to re-run every assumption yourself. Refund the first two issues if they don’t pay back the $29. Reply with the word ‘refund’ and a human reads it the same day. Subscribe · $29/mo, first two refundable →$29/mo · cancel anytime |
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This week's 9 ZIPs | 94590 | Vallejo · Ferry one-seat SF commute, DVSP upzone, cheap 4-unit stock | | 94533 | Fairfield · Travis AFB workforce, $10M Complete Streets under construction | | 95407 | Santa Rosa (Roseland) · jobs importer, Tierra de Rosas redevelopment | | 94928 | Rohnert Park · SMART station, funded Station Avenue TOD, SSU demand | | 95404 | Santa Rosa · SMART downtown stop, DSASP + Missing Middle overlay | | 94559 | Napa · 51.9% renters, First Street Phase II, flood-gate diligence | | 94585 | Suisun City · Capitol Corridor rail, Marina Village delivered | | 95492 | Windsor · SMART station, Shiloh Business Park build-out | | 95688 | Vacaville · $38.4M interchange, Genentech/Kaiser anchors |
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The North Bay knowledge bases are live |
We published per-ZIP research on all nine North Bay ZIPs we screen: Vallejo, Fairfield, Napa, Suisun City, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Roseland, Windsor, and Vacaville. Each one lays out the tenant pool, the rent comps, the growth catalyst, and why a deal there beats or loses to the S&P 500. Start with the ZIP your target address sits in. Explore the North Bay |
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Every figure uses cautious rent estimates backed by documented comps and computed distances to named growth catalysts. Property taxes are modeled at each ZIP's median effective rate unless a parcel-verified figure is stated; confirm the actual tax basis with the county before you underwrite. No invented numbers. No hype. This is not investment advice. Know someone hunting for North Bay deals? Forward this — they can pick their region at therenthacker.com. The Rent Hacker · SF North Bay, CA · July 27, 2026 Manage regions · Unsubscribe |
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