3 ms·

San Francisco is the only major city in the US where you a) don't need a car and b) there's no snow. Apparently, lots of people highly value these (and other) f

San Francisco is the only major city in the US where you a) don't need a car and b) there's no snow. Apparently, lots of people highly value these (and other) factors, enough so that it cannot be as cheap as Philadelphia or Boston. It's not a question of what would be nice. It's a question of supply and demand.

rayiner 14y ago
It is a matter of supply and demand, and while demand in SF is high, it's nothing like say NYC or LA where there are millions of people looking for housing. SF is a medium-sized city as far as cities go. It's a growing city, unlike many, but in the last ten years it grew slower than Boston, DC, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, and Miami. It's not like developers can't build housing quickly enough to keep up with all the demand. It's that the city won't let them.
akgerber 14y ago
The problem is that the city government artificially limits supply through zoning. If the zoning were changed, the market could easily supply a lot more housing, perhaps looking like this: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=park+slope+brooklyn&ll=40.77913,-73.978782&spn=0.011163,0.022638&hnear=Park+Slope,+Brooklyn,+Kings,+New+York&gl=us&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.77913,-73.978782&panoid=9dhb9Bvs7u3mZ8CyIpEerQ&cbp=12,271.99,,0,-2.99 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=park+slope+brooklyn&ll=40... or this: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=barcelona&ll=41.389334,2.156582&spn=0.01106,0.022638&hnear=Barcelona,+Province+of+Barcelona,+Catalonia,+Spain&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=41.38941,2.15669&panoid=jnpJt1xYjLXS8xNcm4VC6Q&cbp=12,72.34,,0,-14.08 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=barcelona&ll=41.389334,2.... Instead of limiting things to this: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+francisco&hl=en&ll=37.755337,-122.487248&spn=0.005794,0.011319&hnear=San+Francisco,+California&gl=us&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=37.754976,-122.48727&panoid=GbHFSk1_NQa_EKgG64lU7w&cbp=12,98.66,,0,-1.45 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+francisco&hl=en&l... The NYC & Barcelona examples can hold 5 or more families in the space that one takes up in the SF example. Both are very desirable places to live.

rayiner 14y ago

It is a matter of supply and demand, and while demand in SF is high, it's nothing like say NYC or LA where there are millions of people looking for housing. SF is a medium-sized city as far as cities go. It's a growing city, unlike many, but in the last ten years it grew slower than Boston, DC, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, and Miami. It's not like developers can't build housing quickly enough to keep up with all the demand. It's that the city won't let them.

akgerber 14y ago

The problem is that the city government artificially limits supply through zoning. If the zoning were changed, the market could easily supply a lot more housing, perhaps looking like this: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=park+slope+brooklyn&ll=40.77913,-73.978782&spn=0.011163,0.022638&hnear=Park+Slope,+Brooklyn,+Kings,+New+York&gl=us&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.77913,-73.978782&panoid=9dhb9Bvs7u3mZ8CyIpEerQ&cbp=12,271.99,,0,-2.99 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=park+slope+brooklyn&ll=40... or this: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=barcelona&ll=41.389334,2.156582&spn=0.01106,0.022638&hnear=Barcelona,+Province+of+Barcelona,+Catalonia,+Spain&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=41.38941,2.15669&panoid=jnpJt1xYjLXS8xNcm4VC6Q&cbp=12,72.34,,0,-14.08 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=barcelona&ll=41.389334,2.... Instead of limiting things to this: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+francisco&hl=en&ll=37.755337,-122.487248&spn=0.005794,0.011319&hnear=San+Francisco,+California&gl=us&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=37.754976,-122.48727&panoid=GbHFSk1_NQa_EKgG64lU7w&cbp=12,98.66,,0,-1.45 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+francisco&hl=en&l... The NYC & Barcelona examples can hold 5 or more families in the space that one takes up in the SF example. Both are very desirable places to live.