San Francisco is consistently ranked as one of the best places to live. Does the high cost of living taxes,
homelessness and crime, wokeness, traffic, weather, and the transient nature of the city make life unbearable?
For some, it does. As a San Francisco native and having spent nearly five years helping people buy and sell homes in the city, I want to make sure that you have no regrets if you do decide to move to this amazing city.
The high cost of living is one of the reasons people regret moving to San Francisco. San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the United States. In terms of real estate, the median price for a home stands at 1.8 million, and the median price for a condo is $1.2 million. And if you can’t afford the expenses of buying a home, the average monthly rent is about $3,200 a month for a one bedroom apartment, not including parking, utilities, you name it. That’s just your base rent.
In addition to your bottom line mortgage or rent, the cost of goods and services has soared in San Francisco, too.It’s not uncommon to pay $8 plus a tip for a coffee, and nearly $18 to $20 for a cocktail, and you can rarely get away with paying under $75. If you’re a couple dining out and that’s without having any cocktails.
Grocery prices the cost of recreation and entertainment are also higher here than most other places we’ve seen memes circulating the internet joking about just stepping foot out of your door in San Francisco. It would cost you $50 before you even make it to the coffee shop. It’s a really funny, mean, but wow, is it so true.
But on the flip side of the high costs of life here, the median household income is over $145,000 a year. And you’re probably thinking that is so low for an area like San Francisco. And it is but it’s actually one of the highest in the nation. For a couple to live comfortably, you’ll need to earn about $300,000 a year. And oftentimes to be able to buy a home, you’ll need to earn at least $450,000.
With these stats come a lot of high profile and paying job opportunities here, including jobs in AI, other sectors of the tech industry, biotech and fintech industries that do make these high earnings achievable. All that said, there are areas of the city that are more affordable than others and where you can find more affordable housing, cheaper food and drinks and entertainment. We talked about the median price for a single family home being around $1.8 million, but there are some areas that you can achieve a more entry level price point. And in San Francisco, the entry level is considered to be at or below $1.5 million.
Some examples of these areas are the Outer parts of the Sunset, Richmond and Parkside. Anything that’s going to be sort of hovering the I-280 highway and bordering it or south of it in areas like Excelsior, Ingleside, Mission Terrace, Crocker Amazon, Portola and Sunnyside. It is important to note that typically, walkability and better weather does add about 20% each to value. So while moving to some of these more entry level price point areas, you are going to lose walkability and weather. So you’re not going to be able to walk to a cool coffee shop, to a Pilates studio. You’re definitely getting in your car and driving to places. and then it’s cooler in these parts of town where you are going to experience more fog and that sort of thing. But there are some areas where you can buy at a lower price point.
Tax rates in California have been historically high. California has the highest state level sales tax rate at 7.25%. And in San Francisco, it’s even higher at 8.625%. And some people hand over more than a third of their paycheck every week to taxes. If you are in a higher tax bracket, it’s even higher. You might have to fork over more than 40% of your earnings to the government, making this a big reason people regret their decision to move to San Francisco.
With the business tax approaching 9%, California has been considered one of the least business friendly states in the U.S. even before the pandemic, businesses were leaving San Francisco for states like Texas, Nevada that did offer lower or non-existing corporate tax rates.
On the bright side, and contrary to popular belief, California does feature some of the lowest property taxes in the country. After we passed proposition 13 a few years ago, where the state restricts an increase on assessed values for taxes and caps them at not greater than 2% each year. So while our taxes are high in San Francisco, low property taxes do soften the blow when you’re getting hit with other high tax rates.
Along with nearly every other big city following the pandemic, San Francisco experienced a wave of crime that resulted in outmigration and captured headlines worldwide. Thefts and smash and grabs in submarkets like Union Square have scared people away from shopping in downtown San Francisco and has sadly caused the closure of many, many beloved and high end stores in the area making it lot less desirable to shop.
Unfortunately, car break ins are also a major concern, while we’ve always dealt with high rates of car break ins and car thefts. It’s only gotten worse after the pandemic. However, as a result of new voter approved initiatives, car break ins have decreased by 51% in Q1 of this year as compared to a year ago. So hopefully that means we’re moving in the right direction.
Although property crime and violent crimes have decreased by almost one third year over year in 2024, there are some neighborhoods that are still dealing with activity. and homelessness has also been a problem plaguing San Francisco for over a decade, as the cost of living and real estate prices continue to skyrocket. Widespread media coverage painted San Francisco as ground zero for the homelessness problem in the United States, However, it’s contained in a small area of the city, and not all parts of San Francisco deal with this level of homelessness.
There are many areas that do not experience homelessness really much at all. Many neighborhoods on the north end of town, like the Marina, Cow Hollow, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights and many other central areas Noe Valley you do experience a lot less homelessness, if at all.
San Francisco is known for being progressive, sometimes to a fault. We tend to promote social justice, inclusivity and awareness of discrimination, empowering marginalized communities and fostering cultural sensitivity. This can lead to intolerance and differing opinions, excessive political correctness and social polarization.
While it drives progressiveness and accountability, it may also contribute to cancel culture. Some find it regrettable to be in this kind of environment unfortunately.
Never ending traffic is another reason people regret moving to San Francisco. Simple stats don’t accurately describe the city’s traffic problem. You have to experience it firsthand to see how truly maddening it can be. During rush hour, it can add hours to your commute to Silicon Valley or the East Bay. Even getting from one end of town in our small seven by seven city can be slow going.
You’ll want to plan around things like San Francisco Giants games, concerts, events at the Chase Center and citywide events in general. Heading east to Lake Tahoe or north to Marin County on a Friday or Saturday morning is really not ideal. I live in South Beach and nearby we have three different Bay Bridge entrances, and I’ve learned that if I don’t want to sit in my car for an hour to move a few blocks, I avoid driving in the area altogether from the hours of 3 p.m. to about shortly after 6:30 p.m.
With all that traffic, where is everyone going? Well, there are a lot of fun events and attractions that happen here. And if traffic has you down the Bay Area, fortunately has plenty of public transportation options, including BART and Muni to get you around.
BART is our regional underground train system, and Muni is our light rail and bus system, which moves people from one corner of the city to another. BART is also, as I mentioned, underground, and it does avoid a lot of that traffic. If you’re heading south to the peninsula or to the East Bay, Bart is a great option.
San Francisco is not like Southern California. It’s cool in San Francisco all year round. Our city lacks the four seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall. Temperatures hover around 60 degrees year round, with the exception of one month September, when the fog banks give way to sunshine and open up to 80 degree weather.
We’ve all heard the saying, the coldest winter is a summer spent in San Francisco, and it couldn’t be more true. San Francisco is perhaps best known for its stubborn, thick fog. In fact, the fog is so thick that it has its own name, Karl. Karl may be gloomy, but he is beloved to some. (not me…)
That said San Francisco is close to warm, sunny areas like Silicon Valley, Napa and Marin. So it’s pretty close to head north or south a few miles enjoy the outdoors in warmer climates, and in some cases, at least 20 degrees warmer. So if you prefer warm weather and shorts most days you might regret moving to San Francisco.
But the good thing is you can move to some of these areas just outside the city and still get into San Francisco within a few minutes and enjoy all of its amenities.
So while it can be cooler most of the year, you could also opt to live in sunnier parts within the city. As I mentioned earlier, weather is one of the things that does drive value up about 20%. And so some of the areas that you could move into that are generally sunnier are areas like the Marina, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, South Beach or Mission Bay are all great options with our microclimates.
These neighborhoods are rarely foggy, or at least after 10 a.m., and they tend to be about to 10 degrees warmer in temperature than other neighborhoods. In these warmer areas, we are seeing more outdoor restaurant seating and rooftop bars pop up as well, which is so fun and something that I always felt the city lacked. Thanks to COVID outdoor dining is here to stay and I’m really excited about it.
The transient nature of Bay Area residents, primarily due to the high cost of living and all the innovation that happens here in San Francisco. A large portion of our population is transient. Many people move here for careers in technology And as many people have families, they tend to move to less expensive areas that offer more space.
Our transient nature does bring diversity, however, things here evolve and change at a faster pace in most parts of the country, and there’s definitely something here for everyone. And while all of this is true, San Francisco still remains one of the most beautiful cities in the world and attracts tourism from all parts of the world.
If after reading or watching this, you are still considering a move to or within San Francisco, we’d love to be your go-to real estate source. Contact us, we’d love to help.
