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I live in one of these in San Francisco, and honestly I love it. For $1700/mo I can live in a nice residential neighborhood with a <10 minute commute. There's a

I live in one of these in San Francisco, and honestly I love it. For $1700/mo I can live in a nice residential neighborhood with a <10 minute commute. There's a full kitchen and a very spacious common area with couches, tables, a TV, and plenty of power. I sleep in one of the eight bunks in the master bedroom, right next to a balcony with a beautiful view of the skyline. Most of us are interns and temp contractors, with an occasional "adult" passing through while looking for permanent housing. Honestly, it's a lot nicer than my University housing and not much more expensive. Without it, I'd have to either live somewhere where I fear for my safety, add 1-2 hours of BART commute onto my workday (and lose easy access to SF restaurants/culture), or spend $2500-$4000 for a studio in a comparable neighborhood.

ghaff 11y ago
I'm not contradicting you, but $1700/mo for an incredibly overcrowded dorm room? Undergrad, doubles converted to triples were considered overcrowded. Wow. Maybe that's the norm in SF these days but it's not something I would have ever considered post-school.
- superuser2 11y ago
  The master bedroom is huge; a king-size bed would have taken less than 30% of the floor. There are two walk-in closets and a private bath. Downstairs, there are 2 bedrooms that could have easily held 2 twin beds each, and another small room that could have taken 1 twin bed. As a single-family home it would have comfortably slept 7. It's probably 2-3x larger than my childhood home and would have fetched $750,000+ in the suburban Midwest. Convert all those twins to bunk beds (as my landlord did) and you've got 10 people across the downstairs bedrooms. Replace the king-size bed with 2 bunk beds, you've got 4 beds in the space where 1 was. 14 people sleeping in the same amount of floor space that 7 previously occupied. Now take the vast empty floor space in the master bedroom and add 2 bunk beds, and you're at the 18 that I live with. It doesn't feel crowded. It has the same drawbacks that any room-sharing situation has - you're never alone, you have to hear people breathe and snore and shift around in bed, there's no possibility of having sex (you can sexile one person - not 7), you have to smell people's smells. But it's no worse than living in a double in college, summer camp, etc. I had no chance of bringing a girl home anyway, the sounds are drowned out by the city/wind when you've got a window open, and everyone is polite and sensitive to the fact that we're sharing space. A portion of that price also goes to Airbnb, which gives me trust/reputation, escrow, precisely the dates of stay I wanted, and no monthslong Craigslist game as is usually necessary to sublet in SF.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    Oh I understand it may be preferable to the alternatives. I just find paying that kind of money to effectively live in a hostel as a working professional to be pretty mind blowing. I'm glad I was never personally in that sort of situation.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 11y ago
You could easily live in Berkeley/Oakland in a nice 1 bedroom for 1700/mo and have a <20 minute commute. No roommates, nice neighborhood, probably even a washer/dryer if you're a little lucky. If you work near a BART station, it's a faster commute than many parts of SF. It's clear that the downsides are minimal to you, and the upsides worth it. I understand that. But you're freaking crazy thinking you have to live 2 hours away to find more reasonable prices. There are hardly even 2 hour lines on BART. Ditto on the safety issue; just know what parts of Oakland to avoid and you're all set.

ghaff 11y ago

I'm not contradicting you, but $1700/mo for an incredibly overcrowded dorm room? Undergrad, doubles converted to triples were considered overcrowded. Wow. Maybe that's the norm in SF these days but it's not something I would have ever considered post-school.

superuser2 11y ago
The master bedroom is huge; a king-size bed would have taken less than 30% of the floor. There are two walk-in closets and a private bath. Downstairs, there are 2 bedrooms that could have easily held 2 twin beds each, and another small room that could have taken 1 twin bed. As a single-family home it would have comfortably slept 7. It's probably 2-3x larger than my childhood home and would have fetched $750,000+ in the suburban Midwest. Convert all those twins to bunk beds (as my landlord did) and you've got 10 people across the downstairs bedrooms. Replace the king-size bed with 2 bunk beds, you've got 4 beds in the space where 1 was. 14 people sleeping in the same amount of floor space that 7 previously occupied. Now take the vast empty floor space in the master bedroom and add 2 bunk beds, and you're at the 18 that I live with. It doesn't feel crowded. It has the same drawbacks that any room-sharing situation has - you're never alone, you have to hear people breathe and snore and shift around in bed, there's no possibility of having sex (you can sexile one person - not 7), you have to smell people's smells. But it's no worse than living in a double in college, summer camp, etc. I had no chance of bringing a girl home anyway, the sounds are drowned out by the city/wind when you've got a window open, and everyone is polite and sensitive to the fact that we're sharing space. A portion of that price also goes to Airbnb, which gives me trust/reputation, escrow, precisely the dates of stay I wanted, and no monthslong Craigslist game as is usually necessary to sublet in SF.
- ghaff 11y ago
  Oh I understand it may be preferable to the alternatives. I just find paying that kind of money to effectively live in a hostel as a working professional to be pretty mind blowing. I'm glad I was never personally in that sort of situation.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi 11y ago

You could easily live in Berkeley/Oakland in a nice 1 bedroom for 1700/mo and have a <20 minute commute. No roommates, nice neighborhood, probably even a washer/dryer if you're a little lucky. If you work near a BART station, it's a faster commute than many parts of SF. It's clear that the downsides are minimal to you, and the upsides worth it. I understand that. But you're freaking crazy thinking you have to live 2 hours away to find more reasonable prices. There are hardly even 2 hour lines on BART. Ditto on the safety issue; just know what parts of Oakland to avoid and you're all set.