Census says: San Francisco getting richer, more expensive by the year

This week, the U.S. Census Bureau released new data about San Francisco from its annual American Community Survey (ACS)—a yearly exercise that supplements information from the last full census, conducted in 2010—and the numbers indicated that year over year San Francisco got wealthier but also more expensive on average.

According to ACS, San Francisco’s 2018 population came in at 883,305. That’s lower than the 2017 ACS estimate of 884,363. However, as Curbed reported in April, those 2017 figures have since been adjusted to a slightly lower figure; SF’s population actually grew by more than 4,000 year over year.

New figures released this week show that SF’s median income, median housing costs, and median home values went up between 2017 and 2018.

The city’s net housing stock increased year over year, as did the total number of vacant homes—but at the same time the overall vacancy rate declined.

Here’s how selected characteristics of SF”s population breakdown for 2018, compared to estimates from the previous year:

• Median age: 38.3 (+0)
• Population under 18: 118,684 (+100)
• Median income: $112,376 (+$1,560)
• Total housing: 401,478 (+1,912)
• Vacant: 38,651 (+1,228)
• Homeowner vacancy rate: 0.3 (-0.6)
• Rental vacancy: 3.2 (-0.3)
• Housing stock built since 2014: 11,563 (+4,203)
• Renter occupied homes: 226,825 (+3,479)
• Households without a car: 109,255 (-4,902)
• Median value: $1.19 million (+$85,900)
• Median monthly mortgage: $3,751 (+297)
• Median rent: $1,880 (+$44)

Note that many of these figures are preliminary. The Census Bureau may adjust them in the future. For more information from the ACS, consult the census data portal.