Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Housing in the Bay Area

blog.samaltman.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 407 posts

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#41

Post by pedalpete »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #25

Even if this bill passes and substantially more multi-family housing starts getting built, do not be surprised if house prices remain extremely high. Vancouver doesn't have the same anti-development issues that SF has, and has been building multi-unit condos and apartments all over the region for decades. Multi-unit housing starts are about at its highest level ever. The average price of a detached house however is C…

Vancouver is a bit of an anomaly, and much of the housing pricing there is being driven by foreign investment rather than occupation rates.

I moved out of the sea-to-sky about 6 years ago (I'm from Whistler) but I seem to recall huge amounts of apartment vacancy in Yaletown and even Coal Harbour areas. From what I've been reading in Canadian news, it seems that many of these properties remain empty and are not in the rental pool as the act as a shell game for foreigners to move money our of other contries (mostly China, but others too I'm sure).

SF is a very small city, even compared to Vancouver, and from what I understand, vacancies are almost nil.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#42

Post by johansch »

weisser wrote: post #10

Cannot believe I'm posting here but relevant: I have a room in my house in the Sunset opening next month. $900. It's month-to-month rent. Looking to house a founder/hacker/designer/etc currently struggling with SF rent (or someone who wants to move to SF but didn't think they could afford to live in SF) My email is in my bio.

Hello Erlich Bachman?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#43

Post by weisser »

vhiremath4 wrote: post #39
weisser wrote: post #10

Cannot believe I'm posting here but relevant: I have a room in my house in the Sunset opening next month. $900. It's month-to-month rent. Looking to house a founder/hacker/designer/etc currently struggling with SF rent (or someone who wants to move to SF but didn't think they could afford to live in SF) My email is in my bio.

This is pretty chill of you man.

I'm new to the Bay Area (moved here officially at the beginning of the year) so definitely interested in meeting more people / assembling a space for hackers/founders who want to live with others who are building things.

May have an additional room opening in July as well for a similar price.

I'd also like to host as many smart/driven folks as possible via couchsurfing.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#44

Post by MAGZine »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #25

Even if this bill passes and substantially more multi-family housing starts getting built, do not be surprised if house prices remain extremely high. Vancouver doesn't have the same anti-development issues that SF has, and has been building multi-unit condos and apartments all over the region for decades. Multi-unit housing starts are about at its highest level ever. The average price of a detached house however is C…

Detached homes will not fall in price, pretty well ever. Since San Francisco is pretty well "out of space," when it comes to developing land, building up is the only option and will come to the detriment of detached housing.

This sort of development however should, as you say, assuage high rents and perhaps expand the condo market in SF.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#46

Post by weisser »

johansch wrote: post #42
weisser wrote: post #10

Cannot believe I'm posting here but relevant: I have a room in my house in the Sunset opening next month. $900. It's month-to-month rent. Looking to house a founder/hacker/designer/etc currently struggling with SF rent (or someone who wants to move to SF but didn't think they could afford to live in SF) My email is in my bio.

Hello Erlich Bachman? Sorry, couldn't resist.

ha I had to Google that.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#47

Post by foobarqux »

TJTorola wrote: post #28
sinak wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source?

I can't say for sure if this is what Foobarqux was referring to but this article https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11708873 came up a couple weeks ago which states > Tim Redmond of 48 Hills has argued that building more housing would make the problem [high housing costs] worse because the people who would move into it are likely to be wealthy newcomers whose demand for services will increase low-income employment,…

Yes, there are a number of similar arguments.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#49

Post by arebop »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #40

When I look at this bill I have to wonder if it will really help. Outside of the city of San Francisco itself, almost nothing is being built, because the construction costs are too high. Not the permitting and planning costs, but the actual guys-with-hammers-and-saws costs. For example in Oakland there are number of properties that are fully entitled to build and have been sitting that way for years. So how does Brow…

If construction costs explain the high price of bay area housing, how is it possible that houses in the midwest are produced at less than 1/5 the price? Are the Kansas guys with hammers really making 1/5 the wages of the California hammer swingers?

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#50

Post by bduerst »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #40

When I look at this bill I have to wonder if it will really help. Outside of the city of San Francisco itself, almost nothing is being built, because the construction costs are too high. Not the permitting and planning costs, but the actual guys-with-hammers-and-saws costs. For example in Oakland there are number of properties that are fully entitled to build and have been sitting that way for years. So how does Brow…

Have you really been looking outside of SF?

Redwood city, about 30-40 min south of SF, has been booming with building growth. Developers are building, but can't get approvals with local governments fast enough.

Post reply on HN