An article at USA Today warns that people are leaving San Francisco because they can’t afford it:
SAN FRANCISCO — Social media influencer Sarah Tripp and her husband, Robbie Tripp, moved to San Francisco in 2016 brimming with optimism.
“We thought, here’s a city full of opportunities and connections where you go to work hard and succeed,†says Tripp, 27, founder of the lifestyle blog Sassy Red Lipstick.
But after a year-long hunt for suitable housing in San Francisco only turned up “places for $1 million that looked like rundown shacks and needed a remodel,†the couple packed up and moved to Phoenix.
They went from paying San Francisco rents of $2,500 for a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment that was far from shopping and other amenities, to purchasing a newly constructed 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bathroom home where they’ll raise their newly arrived baby boy.
“It was cool to be living near all those high-tech startups,†Tripp says of her Bay Area years. “But you quickly saw that if you weren’t part of that, you’d be pushed out. It’s just sad.â€
They should be careful. There will be an assumption that if you aren’t in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, or Seattle, you’re third rate. If you’re so smart, why aren’t you in San Francisco? Not being there will not only make it harder to be seen as credible, it will make it harder for you to get financial backing should you need it.
Not mentioned is the Old Calcutta-like ambience of many parts of the City, where addicts, madmen, and urban wildlife wallow in indescribable solids and fluids, where encounters with loose needles and threats of bodily harm are an hourly occurrence, where authorities ignore petty theft and constant car break-ins to the point where insurance cannot be procured for vehicles parked in town, where construction of new housing (except for illegals and the homeless) is either forbidden or made so expensive and time-consuming and unprofitable no one wants to do it. The Tech companies know damn well that their way of life, not to mention their profits, are being threatened by increasing public awareness of the situation, which is why they have been building housing campuses, to get their workers out of their autos and vans and into safe affordable housing, where they only thing they will have to fear is not being woke enough for their colleagues who’ve never needed to experience joy of living in a shithole due to lack of funds.
Despite the constant onslaught from the right about how horrible it is living in San Francisco one thing stays constant. So many people want to live there that real estate prices keep climbing. So maybe it isn’t quite as bad as people on the right portray it. Just a thought. Certainly what i thought when we were there last summer. (Nice chart at link.)
https://wolfstreet.com/2019/08/15/housing-bubble-2-in-san-francisco-bay-area-silicon-valley-is-cooked/
Steve