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Compare SF to other cities in the country, and you'll see that it's not some outlier: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/08/daily-chart-20?fsrc=

Compare SF to other cities in the country, and you'll see that it's not some outlier: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/08/daily-chart-20?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/americanhousepricesrealtycheck http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/08/daily-c...

Spooky23 10y ago
Those charts make my point. Look at the prices in real terms. SFO is more than 2x NYC and 4x the national average! A $400k home in NYC is within reasonable reach of a dual income professional couple. Prices are high generally because capital is cheap and monetary policy has made other traditional "safe" investments useless. The income ratio based numbers reflect how the "middle class" is getting the proverbial shaft. When wages are stagnant for 30 years and property appreciates, you need to accept the fact that you're not capable of supporting a circa 1986 middle class standard of living. My grandfather owned a home in NYC, kept new cars, and had a summer camp in the mountains on a blue-collar city government income and second job as a boilerman in the 1960s. That's no longer achievable. I personally barely have that level of buying power as a IT executive.
- bufordsharkley 10y ago
  But how can you support the statement that the phenomenon of Silicon Valley created the unaffordability of houses when we see the same increases across the country? If it really was the tech scene, we'd expect the increases to be much higher in the Bay Area.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    Click on the "prices in real terms" chart, which factors out inflation. The average US price in real terms is up like 10% since 1980. The average SFO price is 400% above that. The average NYC price is 200% more. That's a real estate bubble. Lots of factors influence what's happening. Between Tech workers who make too much, Chinese capital flight liking for a home and stupid bank underwriting practices, demand is wacky in a few cities.
    - bufordsharkley 10y ago
      Compare to Los Angeles, a city with similarly broken land-use policies to SF, but without the tech scene. It only lags by a small amount. I simply don't think you can attribute the tech scene as a unique cause of this.

Spooky23 10y ago

Those charts make my point. Look at the prices in real terms. SFO is more than 2x NYC and 4x the national average! A $400k home in NYC is within reasonable reach of a dual income professional couple. Prices are high generally because capital is cheap and monetary policy has made other traditional "safe" investments useless. The income ratio based numbers reflect how the "middle class" is getting the proverbial shaft. When wages are stagnant for 30 years and property appreciates, you need to accept the fact that you're not capable of supporting a circa 1986 middle class standard of living. My grandfather owned a home in NYC, kept new cars, and had a summer camp in the mountains on a blue-collar city government income and second job as a boilerman in the 1960s. That's no longer achievable. I personally barely have that level of buying power as a IT executive.

bufordsharkley 10y ago
But how can you support the statement that the phenomenon of Silicon Valley created the unaffordability of houses when we see the same increases across the country? If it really was the tech scene, we'd expect the increases to be much higher in the Bay Area.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  Click on the "prices in real terms" chart, which factors out inflation. The average US price in real terms is up like 10% since 1980. The average SFO price is 400% above that. The average NYC price is 200% more. That's a real estate bubble. Lots of factors influence what's happening. Between Tech workers who make too much, Chinese capital flight liking for a home and stupid bank underwriting practices, demand is wacky in a few cities.
  - bufordsharkley 10y ago
    Compare to Los Angeles, a city with similarly broken land-use policies to SF, but without the tech scene. It only lags by a small amount. I simply don't think you can attribute the tech scene as a unique cause of this.