SF: One of the Top Ten Best, One of the Top Ten Most Expensive.. or Both?
Susan Brady’s recent blog reporting SF as one of the top ten cities to live in, in terms of growing appreciation in your home’s equity, inspired me to look up a few other top tens on to which this fair city places.
In fact, one such list comes from Forbes, which reports the top ten most expensive cities in the US. The results of this report surprised me.
In order from 10 to 1, 1 being the most expensive, here is the list:
- 10. Washinton, D.C. (inflation driven expenses are the main culprit here, but the expense is offset by a high number of good jobs available in the city)
- 9. Boston, MA (colleges abound, as does history and tourism. Rents and real estate reflect this demand)
- 8. Houston, TX (lots of jobs, but driving to work is the reason for the high expensive of life here, since there is not a solid mass transit option)
- 7. White Plains, NY (high demand for housing and heavy commuting fees are to blame)
- 6. Chicago (with rising tourism, business travel, and demand for housing, the costs in this city are going up)
- 5. San Francisco, CA (we are all familiar with the cause and effect of high cost living in this city, I think)
- 4. Honolulu, HI (scarcity of overall land, high income visitors, extra expense for imported goods and foodstuffs, and of course, natural beauty make the island very dear indeed)
- 3. Miami, FL (tourism, active/creative lifestyles, and sunny weather made property valuable, though since the real estate crash, housing costs have declined enough to take Miami out of the top 50 most expensive cities in the world)
- 2. Los Angeles, CA (main offender is gas prices, since the average LA commuter spends more than 70 hours a year driving)
- 1. New York (high rents, high food costs, and high housing costs. All these combine to make New York the only US city to place among the top 50 most pricey cities in the world, coming in at #22)
The surpise was finding SF to be 5th, when I imagined it would be 3rd or 4th, at the least. But not surprising is this further article from Forbes on how inflation, layoffs, hiring freezes, and gas prices are making American cities in general less and less affordable.
Still, SF homes can command some pretty steep price tags, so I will close with a small sample of crazy high prices for those lucky few who find money no object.
33 Woodland is a 2/2.5 SFH in the Ashbury Heights area. Sold for $570K in ’94, now listed at $1,798,000.
1089 Chestnut is a Russian Hill 7/7 mansion, with its very own elevator! Sold in ’97 for $3 mill, now asking $9,250,000.
2871 Union is a 2/2 condo in Cow Hollow, and is being sold “as is.” Not sure what the “as is” entails, but I hope it’s not too bad, since the asking is $1,550,000.
650 2nd St., #502 is a 5/4 live/work condo/loft with all the swank of a James Bond movie set. You’ll need a similarly paid career yourself to swing the $3,125,000.
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Photo credit: Wilderness.net
