High rent and home prices in SF have in recent history been driven by the finance industry, not tech. This trend has been ongoing since the mid 1980s. Article

High rent and home prices in SF have in recent history been driven by the finance industry, not tech. This trend has been ongoing since the mid 1980s. Articles and popular sentiment calling out the tech industry divert attention away from the true causes of this inflation on the demand side. On the supply side, of course SF has failed dramatically due to Nimbyism and the powerful entrenched interests of the landed gentry and real estate industries who work to keep housing supply limited. As a SF resident since 2010 with a now 3 year old (Pac Heights pre-kid, Outer Richmond post), we are most likely to leave the city before he starts kindergarten. Although our preference would be to stay, the major factors are 1) home prices and 2) the school situation. We are renting at what would now be considered a reasonable rate, but our building has recently changed hands and the new owner's modus operandi is to Ellis or OMI as soon as our protected status is ended this summer. While we could afford to buy in the city, we would not be able to simultaneously budget for private schools. The public school system is in our opinion, far too much risk. Yes there are good schools, but even the best have crowd control problems for simple demographic reasons. Fully one third of SF school children attend private schools, and among the remaining two thirds there is an unfortunately sizable constituent whose family backgrounds are not as committed to education as we are. While we chafe at the insular homogeneity of the suburbs, we are also not so blind as to place our son in a school where significant resources must be expended on crowd control at the expense of quality education. It's a tough bind to be in. Just yesterday I attended the grand opening ceremony for Alamo school's playground where supervisor Mark Farrell and Sandra Lee Fewer were both highly encouraging for families to stay in the Richmond. I don't doubt their sincerity and I do believe they are doing everything in their power to make the city more family friendly. But my household simply does not have the resouces to compete with all-cash offers from overseas investors or investment bankers. It will be sad to bid farewell to this city, but education for my son is far more important to me.