2007.10.21
It’s Getting Too Expensive to Live Here!
I knew even before I moved to San Francisco from Washington, DC that the Bay Area was going to be expensive. That was 10 years ago. The first place I got was $550/month. It was a tiny room in a three bedroom apartment containing four people (none of whom I really liked). My first job here paid me $23.5K and after taxes that didn’t leave much. I ate a lot of Indian Hurricane Stew that year (Dinty Moore stew with curry thrown in) and managed. Barely. When my wages started increasing me and two friends got a great flat in the Richmond District (the urban suburb of San Francisco, along with the Sunset District). My rent is higher but I have more room and, fortunately, I’m making more now. I’ve got a really good deal.
I do crave my own apartment, though. Someplace to call my own. This summer I started looking idly for a new apartment. Was I shocked.
In the short span of a few months, finding an apartment in San Francisco has gone from a challenge to a nightmare – with landlords demanding rents that are beyond laughable. We all know it’s expensive to live here, but $1445 for a studio in the Mission? $2500 for a one-bedroom in Cole Valley? $3685 for a two-bedroom in Noe Valley?
Ridiculous! Somewhere in my life I picked up the notion that housing should cost 1/3rd of your take home pay and at most 1/2. How can people afford to live here at all?
SF Gate has an article about the cost of living out here outlining the costs. Keep in mind this is just the basic expenses and doesn’t include discretionary spending!
How much households must spend on average each month to live in the Bay Area:Single adult: $2,469
Single-parent family (two kids): $5,489
Two-parent family (one working): $4,423
Two-parent family (both working): $6,422
This is a huge problem, and a huge portion of this problem comes from the cost of housing. I’m very lucky that I can afford my place now, but the prospect of moving seems almost impossible. With single family homes averaging $553,000 (according to the first link) I can’t even think about buying.
No wonder so many locals fantasize about a huge earthquake to drive out as many as possible so the market is forced to readjust. When I moved here ten years ago my $550 piece-of-shit room seemed out of control. These days it wouldn’t even rent you a closet. Maybe I should have titled this “It’s Already Too Expensive to Live Here!”
Categorized: dc grrr life san francisco
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One Response to “It’s Getting Too Expensive to Live Here!”
- Nob Hill Ken says (October 21st, 2007 at 19:18:55 )
There’s stuff out there (even in some of the places I think you want to live). Give me a call if you like and I’ll try and point you in the right direction. I spend a little over 1/3 of my take-home pay (for a 40-hour week) on rent for a one-bedroom, and my apartment most decidedly does not suck.
Oh, what the hell.
$1500. - One bedroom in Hayes Valley, cats OK, hardwood floors.
$1400. - One bedroom in the Upper Haight, hardwood floors.
$1500. - One bedroom in Noe Valley, hardwood floors.
$1495. - One bedroom in Pacific Heights, cats OK, hardwood floors.It took me all of 10 minutes to find those (all of the listings had pictures and looked okay, too). I’m curious, did you pick the most expensive places you found as examples? *Most* of the stuff listed is overpriced, but look again in a few weeks and you’ll see some of those same apartments listed for hundreds less; it’s a cycle. While vacancy rates are low, they’re not so low that people are just snapping things up at any price, so I think you’ll be fine.
One other thing to consider: as an example, my utilities (gas and electricity) have never been more than $15-$20 per month in San Francisco. Most of the one-bedrooms and studios I see listed have steam (free) heat, so subtract your utterly insane utility bill from the base rent listed for most of these places and you’ll find you’re in potentially good shape.
Happy hunting! Now get to it, it’s about time.
