Tag Archives: real estate

Housing Prices in San Francisco

The cost of living in San Francisco is similar to that of New York, as evidenced by the median sale price of homes and rent per month.

However, a wide disparity exists: the price per square foot per home in San Francisco is still much lower than that of New York. This enables us to deduce that 1) homes in SF are probably much larger than those in New York and 2) there is still significant room for Real Estate in San Francisco to appreciate to what (arguably) represents its terminal value – Price per Square Foot in New York.

Upside Considerations:

  • There is more land available in San Francisco
  • San Francisco infrastructure still has a lot of room for improvement (Transbay Terminal; BART extension to China Town)
  • San Francisco is a first mover with respect to *potential* new infrastructure technologies (driverless cars, micro-housing projects)
  • Desirable climate
  • Growing technology industry

Downside Considerations

  • Growth of housing supply in Oakland
  • Updating policies associated with housing supply restrictions in SF

Despite high pries, perhaps property values still represent a significant discount to terminal value?

Source Data: Zillow