Well, I’ve always thought that San Francisco was one of the most expensive places to live but didn’t know that it was “the most expensive rental city” in the U.S.

Interesting to note that New York isn’t the most expensive but it makes sense since there’s a lot more limited land in San Francisco whereas New York is much bigger.

This is good to know, I am not paying high rent in SF for no reason.

A recent study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found San Francisco to be the most expensive rental city in the United States. To put this in perspective, it’s not unusual for a studio in San Francisco to cost $2,000/month or more. This is due largely to the city’s high standard of living; San Francisco has a higher concentration of high wage earners than any other city in the United States. The median income in San Francisco for a family of four is $91K per year — much higher than other cities.

San Francisco consists of 49 square miles, and the city is not expanding, say, in the way New York has grown outwardly from the center. Because the city is on a peninsula, and is surrounded by water on three sides, the only way for it to expand is upwards. The scarcity of land is therefore reflecting on the cost of living in this city. Consequently, there is an underlying sense of competition regarding who should live where, how land should be developed, and how much it should cost.

via citypass

Tags: concentration, income housing coalition, interesting facts, median income, national low income housing, national low income housing coalition, perspective, san francisco downtown, scarcity of land, united states, wage earners, york isn

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under High Rises, Living.