SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A row of homes stands in front of the Golden Gate Bridge on July 17, 2014 in San Francisco, California. According to a report by DataQuick, the median price of new or existing single-family homes and condos reached $1 million. (Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Just as the Banking system has designed it. This is a consequence of geography and horrific development policies that drastically restrict how and where residential construction can take place. There just aren’t enough housing units relative to the number of high-paying jobs. The reason a 2 bedroom cottage in San Jose costs around $1M is because there are a large quantity of people who can actually afford that but not the $1.5M it would take to get a 4/3, so their choice is either the cottage or nothing. Sucks that there are no other places to live in the entire country. If you want to work in the type of industries where the high-end jobs are only in Silicon Valley, you are rather screwed. Even with housing prices being what they are, it’s probably still worth it if you work in the tech industry, particularly at the start of your career. Why anyone who doesn’t work in technology, real estate or construction would opt to live here completely boggles my mind though – in that circumstance, I would be looking to GTFO at the earliest opportunity. Sucks if you are a regular person making a decent wage and you get priced out because Google and Facebook employees are driving up the prices. If your family has been living in the city for decades, it isn’t fair that you have to leave because the rent/mortgage is too damn high. At the same time San Francisco has shot itself in the foot by not encouraging taller buildings and higher density housing. They want to have their cake and eat it too by enjoying the benefits of gentrification in the city and the boom in people living there, but at the same time trying to keep the “character” of the city the same, which is almost impossible because cities are living things that change and grow. Growing out has just caused terrible traffic and other problems, so at some point they need to let the city grow upwards more than they have. NAR chief economist, Lawrence Yun, observes that the boost in the housing market was driven by consistent rent increases, the slow rise in mortgage rates and prominent local job markets. Yun added, “While this led to a boost in sales paces not seen since before the downturn, overall supply failed to keep up and pushed prices higher in a majority of metro areas. With home prices and rents continuing to rise and wages showing only modest growth, declining affordability remains a hurdle for renters considering homeownership – especially in higher-priced markets.”