Once again we return to everyone's favorite conversation topic, which is becoming akin to talking about the "dry heat" in Arizona and saying things like "all politicians are crooks and morons." All together now: San Francisco is stupidly expensive! Rents are too damn high! Anyway, a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms that S.F. now has the highest median rent of any big city in the country.
So, this means that median rent of all unit types is $1,463, which is just above the second-place finisher, San Jose, where it's $1,441. Meanwhile in New York, this median rent figure is still $1,187, but obviously that's just because they have exponentially more housing units across a vastly bigger socio-economic range. You still can't rent a shoebox in Manhattan for under two grand, but we digress.
The new report comes as a result of three years of American Community Survey data covering 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Because San Franciscans are relatively affluent, though, compared to residents of some of the other cities included, like D.C. and L.A., the figure relating to rent as a percent of income is actually a little more encouraging. Only 37% of renters here pay out 35% or more of their income to rent, compared to 41% in D.C., and over 50% in L.A.
Anyway, everyone wants to live here. The tech economy's booming. Maybe that will change but rents never really slip that much, they just kind of plateau (as they're starting to this year because everything is at peak ridiculousness), except they did dip just slightly for about a year or two after Loma Prieta. So, we're doomed. The end.
