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The high cost comes from a city that basically makes it impossible to build housing. The bureaucracy drives out developers, leaving only those who are willing t
by hisnameisjimmy 6y ago
The high cost comes from a city that basically makes it impossible to build housing. The bureaucracy drives out developers, leaving only those who are willing to deal with nightmarish levels of legal hurdles. The legal headaches make the housing insanely expensive to build.
- BobbyJo 6y agoExactly. Econ 101. Lots of demand and no supply means prices rise. SF and other bay area cities are more than happy to build tons of office space for tens of thousands of office jobs, but when it comes to building the housing those new workers need to live... Nope. Office jobs mean revenue, houses mean costs. When you have to be a home owner to be on a city council, your incentives get a little perverse.
- eli_gottlieb 6y agoIt's not some abstract "bureaucracy". It's the fact that "build nothing and make the undesirables leave SF" is the popular position on housing in San Fran. The only thing different political factions disagree about is whom to deport.
- neilparikh 6y agoExactly, even many "progressive" groups are okay with a situation where many people who want to live in SF won't be able to. The difference from the status quo is that they don't think it should be the price mechanism that decides who gets to stay and who has to leave.