These 10 Headlines Pretty Much Sum Up San Francisco Housing in 2015

San Francisco’s ridiculous rents and home prices have seen lots of media coverage in 2015. And most of the articles said pretty much the same thing:

With Soaring Rents and a Vanishing Middle Class, San Francisco Becomes a City for the Rich

As the days go by, San Francisco is solidifying itself as a city for the wealthy, putting it on par with wealth havens like New York City, London and Singapore, where long-time residents have been pushed out and replaced by corporations and the super-rich. Read the full story here.

by Adam Hudson, December 15, 2015,  Truthout

So instead of re-stating the obvious, we thought we’d take a look at what’s already out there and put together some of the most striking headlines written in 2015 – by top-tier publications, both local and national. Centered on the utter lack of affordability, the headlines depict some of the most ridiculously priced homes and rentals, the extreme workarounds city residents were forced into, along with some recurring themes that made the newspapers in the past year.

And to take things a step further — and really let the headlines sink in — try imagining your reaction to them if you weren’t all-too-familiar with these outrageous numbers. So go back to your 2005, 2006 self, when the average rent was still in the $1,300s, when Airbnb would have been nothing more than a weird name, and a headline suggesting that you could actually save money by commuting from Las Vegas would have sounded plain stupid.

Now take a look at these 10 headlines that pretty much sum up San Francisco housing in 2015:

A millennial with a median income in San Francisco ($47,426) can afford to buy a 135 square foot home (if such a home existed). That’s smaller than the 9 ft. x 18 ft. dimensions of what many city codes consider a “full size” parking space.  Read the full story here.

by David Z. Morris, December 31, Fortune Magazine

In a city where the median home price is well over one million, a 2-bedroom home on the market for $350,000 is quite the bargain.

But there’s a catch.

This disheveled, yet “distinguished” Outer Mission home built in 1906 is in need of some serious work. Read the full story here.

by Nicole Jones, September 21, CBS SF Bay Area

Image via Google Street View

It is nicknamed the “Make it Happen Wagon,” has no plumbing, and may not provide enough warmth for winter. At $600 a month, an old FedEx truck has also become a legitimate option for San Francisco renters. Read the full story here.

Jonathan Chew, December 15, 2015, Fortune Magazine

Curbed reported on the sale of a Lake District residence that had come to be colloquially known as the “Mummy House” for $1.56 million, more than half a million dollars over the listing price of $928,000. Read the full story here.

by Tamara Palmer, September 23, 2015, NBC Bay Area

The price at which a residential unit in San Francisco is considered unaffordable has now been raised by the City’s Planning Department to $1.63 million, up from $1.51 million a year ago, as the area continues to grapple with an affordable housing crisis. Read the full story here.

by Riley McDermid, December 9, 2015, San Francisco Business Times

The Bay Area’s housing crisis shows no sign of slowing down. Yet 2015 has been a historic year for affordable housing in San Francisco. This was the year that market-rate developers were pushed higher and harder than ever before on building affordable housing. Read the full story here.

by Emily Fancher, December 3, 2015, San Francisco Business Times

A furnished three bedroom Four Seasons penthouse is renting for almost $30,000 per month in San Francisco, topping one site’s list of most expensive rentals currently on the real estate market. Read the full story here.

by Tamara Palmer, November 20, 2015, NBC Bay Area

Short-term rentals on the home-sharing platform Airbnb are keeping somewhere between 925 and 1,960 units off San Francisco’s housing market, according to a report from the Board of Supervisors’ budget and legislative analyst. Though that quantity makes up a small portion of the total rental market—somewhere between 0.4 and 0.8 percent—it takes a more substantial bite out of the city’s vacant housing stock. Read the full story here.

by Lamar Anderson, May 15, 2015, Curbed San Francisco

On March 1, Deb Follingstad and her boyfriend were living in a rent-controlled apartment in Bernal Heights, paying $2,145 for a two-bedroom above what had once been a gas station and garage. On March 2, that all changed. Follingstad found herself holding a legal notice informing her that her rent would soon jump to $8,900—a fourfold increase—with a security deposit set at an astounding $12,500 per month. Read the full story here.

by Lamar Anderson, March 16, 2015, Curbed San Francisco

Reddit user yourslice poses a humble question to all those San Francisco residents fed up with rising rents: Why not move to Las Vegas and commute back to the Bay Area?

…

Added together, it would cost you $2,408 a month to live in and commute from Las Vegas, meaning a savings of $715 a month (and double the apartment space) compared to living in San Francisco. Read the full story here.

by Eric Jaffe, October 17, 2015, Business Insider (via CityLab)

What other housing-related headlines have made your skin crawl in 2015?