Build Out, Not Up
19th October 2015
Someone has calculated that it would be less expensive for San Francisco workers to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas and commute by air than to rent a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. They reasoned that a one-bedroom in San Francisco is about $3,100 a month while a two-bedroom in Las Vegas is about $1,000 a month, and four-day-a-week airfares would be about $1,100 a month. Even with local transport, Las Vegas is less expensive than San Francisco.
While most responses focus on the quality of life in Las Vegas vs. San Francisco, the point is that the latter is so terribly overpriced that some software engineers are actually living out of their cars.
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San Francisco has other barriers to affordable housing. Rent control discourages builders from building much more rental housing. The city’s strict tenant-rights ordinance discourages people from renting out their homes. Inclusionary zoning ordinances in many Bay Area suburbs discourage new development in those suburbs. Lengthy permitting processes make it difficult for builders to respond to changes in demand. All of these things help explain why San Francisco is so expensive that someone might find it cheaper to commute from Las Vegas.