Yes, rents are still nuts, yes, only the rich can afford to move here…and yet, most of what I’ve seen floating around this week is kinda positive.
I don’t mean to diminish the crisis. Bloomberg has a dispatch from another rent comparison study that really brings it home that yes, San Francisco is officially the most expensive city in the country and we pay big bucks for some bad options.
At the same time, as Curbed notes, housing ownership is up slightly (says the census) and it’s still possible for the median earner in San Francisco to afford to buy a house in the city. Sure, it’s only possible in the Bayview and the Tenderloin, but frankly, I’m surprised that those are even within reach of a median earner. With a bit of flexibility on reality, Curbed even comes to this conclusion:
So in all, there are ten neighborhoods most of us can potentially buy in most of the time…assuming a fairly generous definition of the median wage, decent loan terms, and that we’re willing to commit way more to housing than is usually recommended.
But hey, that’s something, right?
And the pipeline of new housing is positively bursting, in some cases with affordable housing. Preliminary plans have been submitted for dorm-style housing on 15th and South Van Ness, market-rate housing on 24th and Capp, and Mission Housing has been awarded the contract to build affordable housing on South Van Ness and 16th. Plus, some vacant SRO units on Valencia are being transformed into permanent supportive housing for the homeless.
More happy things I encountered this week:
These 5,000 balloons are up on the building that houses Mi Ranchito produce market – Hoodline has the story on what they are celebrating, namely the 10th anniversary of the party blog Oh Happy Day.
Then there’s this mural on 20th and Bryant streets that Sirron Norris is working on. I caught it in its early stages and thought I recognized Bob and Linda Belcher:
And indeed, they are the long-suffering (kinda) parents in the animated series Bob’s Burgers, which, as Hoodline reports, has its roots in not just San Francisco, but the Mission specifically.
Another ray of light, however tiny: When I see Curbed do these comparisons for renters (“What $X rents you in SF right now”) I always sort of open them while gritting my teeth and cringing. But I have to say that I perked up at this one. Check out their options for $1800 a month – one or two of these actually have a sort of bedroom! Whoa! Craigslist tells a similar story, in that some of the studios advertised in the “super trendy” Mission district come in at under 1800, and are not SROs. Like is this one even real? Be still my heart…
Nonetheless, I think it will be a while before we see a deal like this historic Hercules house on the market for $1.