Interesting, though the numbers seem a bit off for my area. $2600 to rent in SF? Where do such affordable units exist? I must have missed a date on the article.
You mention the wide variance in rental prices, but that same thing can play out on a more local scale as well. CA comes in as most expensive state-wise but there are huge differences between the hot/flat middle Central Valley and the more temperate coast. The average masks these differences.