A growing number of backpack-toting tech workers have been joining the robotaxis and scooter-riding food delivery people on the streets of downtown San Francisco.
A new report documents the gradual recovery that's been visible to city residents for months. In September, foot traffic at San Francisco office buildings jumped 19% from last year's levels, according to Placer.ai, which tracks comings and goings at 1,300 office buildings nationwide.
That amounted to the largest year-over-year gain among the cities the company follows. It was also a significant increase from August, when San Francisco showed a 10.2% gain in foot traffic from 2024.
Even so, the city is still registering far less foot traffic than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Placer.ai’s metrics. Despite September's big jump, San Francisco still has about 40% less foot traffic than it did in September 2019, a bigger gap than in any other city tracked, according to the report.
“That combination — still lagging but accelerating rapidly — mirrors what’s happening in the city’s leasing market, where AI-driven demand is fueling fresh activity and major employers are renewing their commitments to the Bay Area,” wrote Placer.ai content manager Lila Margalit in a blog post about the findings.
In August, Mayor Daniel Lurie ordered about 8,000 San Francisco city employees — some of whom had been working from home since 2020 — to start reporting to the office again at least four days a week. Some San Franciscans thought that move was overdue given the city’s high office vacancy rate — a record 23%, according to CoStar, a significant multiple compared to the rate of less than 6% reported back in 2019.
The artificial intelligence boom taking place in San Francisco and Silicon Valley is driving a surge in office leasing nationwide after several years of companies holding back. From bustling New York City to quiet Seattle suburbs, the improved leasing from the technology industry appears to be an encouraging sign for the office market after major workspace users such as Meta and Google consolidated space to cut costs.
September also saw a return-to-the-office wave nationwide, with companies such as Intel and Toyota requiring employees to spend at least four days per week in the office, Placer said.
One reason San Francisco stands out for registering consistent improvement in office traffic is that other cities’ workers returned to in-person work much sooner.
The report noted that Miami and New York City — two markets where in-person work has firmly reestablished itself as the norm — continued to lead the nation’s office recovery in September. Dallas and Atlanta saw significant surges in office worker foot traffic, according to the report.