It's not looking good, kids. Despite the fact that 10,000 housing units have been added to the City since 2002, home prices in San Francisco are approaching levels unseen since the dot-com heyday. Let's compare rental prices from the respective eras, shall we? In 2000, the dot-com millennial, a two-bedroom unit went for between $2,500 and $2,750/month. In 2006, the same unit was going for $2,400/month, and the numbers sure as hell haven't dropped since then.
The numbers of new units going up aren't helping those prices; SF is averaging just over 1,500 new housing units a year and San Francisco's Housing Element, a state-required document, dictates that the city should be building 3,000 new units a year. It sounds like—as ever—survival of the fittest for San Franciscans, but City Hall office assures us all is about to change. Since a 2003 slump, investment in housing has jumped and many new projects should be realized within the next couple years—perhaps reducing, though unlikely ever fully eliminating, the ongoing Darwinian battle for real estate.
· Prices to buy, rent in city climb [Examiner]
[Image via postcardexchange.net]
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