In San Francisco, you need an income of $290,630...

[August West]

space-time wrote:
[quote=Onamuji]
[quote=C(-)ris]
How is this any different than NYC?

Prices aren't just high in that area, but also in all of the surrounding regions.

Working in NYC, you can find a place in Brooklyn... or Long Island... or Staten Island if you don't mind the reputation... or even Jersey if you can keep it a secret.
Come and visit Princeton and you may change your mind about NJ. What you see from the Turnpike is not what NJ looks like.
Stayed with some Princetonite friends in Hopewell. It was very nice at their house.

[NewtonMP2100]

....but Princeton is.....upper crusty.........

[pdq]

It's a legitimate problem with desirable, area-limited cities. At some point, rich investors start buying up properties not to live there, and not to rent, but as investments.

Happens in NYC and London, prolly other places too. I don't know what the answer is, but it seems to me that it's one of the great real-world problems unaddressed by modern economics. (Another one is why we all have to keep running faster just to stay in the same place; another is how is automation going to help the world when only wealthy people and companies can afford to own wealth-producing automation.)

[Bill in NC]

Not just the bay area, but also many other urban areas of southern California.

An old college roommate bought their modest (Levittown-size) home in a suburb of San Jose for ~$500,000, ~15 years ago.

Zillow (and comps) have it now at triple that price (at least)

His company will probably move within the next couple of years to AZ/NM, consolidating locations, but also because prospective employees can no longer afford local housing.