Rents in South Bay (Silicon Valley) have been increasing for the last 5 months. There's still not enough supply to meet the demand, and the job market is improving here. San Francisco is still crazy, although the pace has slowed a bit (according to stats). However, it should be interesting to see how the all new apartment high rises that are going online in the next couple of years on South of Market perform. To me, its getting way too saturated with the same looking condos near the Ball Park. There's no character to the neighborhood. Just condo after condo is being built. But hey, if they can build it and sell them, I guess that's their whole gameplan.
It seems that the most notable one, 1 Rincon Hill (the biggest addition to the skyline since I've lived here), is almost completely sold. They have more towers planned of 300 or so units each.
http://www.sfnewdevelopments.com/