hey guys I was late to add the poll at the end @19:22, please cast your vote if you're on desktop, I really want to know where you all stand :D - Jabril
So historic or not, how do you tell someone their single house has to be replaced by a high rise apartment? You have now told them for all piratical purposes that they must now live in an apartment because their house is gone.
Your merchandising link is messed up. I was interested in the cap and hoodie you were wearing in the video. Regarding your video, I was waiting for you to address the elasticity of demand as a determining factor in the ridiculous housing prices. If SF renters decided it was absolutely too expensive to rent and most chose to move outside the city, the owners could not command such high prices to rent. Unless they can afford their primary mortgage plus the rental property's mortgage as well, they'd be forced to either sell or bring the prices back down to prices mere mortals could afford. Just as people have little elasticity of demand when it comes to the price of a gallon of milk or gas, so too should the market be able to bring down the housing prices.
So is San Francisco more expensive than San Diego?very interesting video. learned a lot about the situation in SF.San Diego is starting to go the route of SF, unfortunately.Cheers
I think somewhere there needs to be a compromise, you can't keep every historic building as well as you can't keep raising prices. So i think that some historic buildings must go to lower prices but to a point to where it doesn't disrupt the culture and people who want to see that culture still can. Maybe one side of the peninsula should allow high rising buildings and more housing and the other should keep its classic look. I think the cultural side of the argument should give up some space for more people to live there to benefit not only people who want to live there but for their own rent and communities.
The cycle will continue, eventually prices will crash at some point .....before that time comes move away, live your life without being house or rent poor .... there's literally millions of places to live besides that open cesspool
Having been to San Francisco, I can tell you that it has several shitty neighborhoods, which still have low buildings. They can add a lot of additional housing without having to taint the landmarks and the nicer neighborhoods. With all the money that they have, the new buildings are probably going to look a lot nicer than the current ones too, upgrading the city, rather than ruining it. Future San Francisco could become even more iconic than it is now. IMO, preserving the city is just an excuse. Landowners just want to keep things as they are, because they can rent poorly maintained properties for extreme prices. Landowners get a lot of say in city business, which is a good thing in most case, just not this time.
I live in San Francisco, and let me tell you that preserving the city is absolutely not an excuse. The architecture and history is one of the reasons even the middle class want to live there, if you get rid of that, many people wanting to live there won't even bother any more. Our culture is more tied to history and the past than most American cities and we definitely value it more. Try getting anyone to build in Golden Gate Park or the Presidio and you would have the entire bay area come down on you like a 10 ton boulder . We have a joie de vivre that's more reminiscent of a European city. Oh and we don't consider defacing and carving out the inner materials of our Victorians and Edwardians to be an upgrade by no means!
QuangTran27 I don't remember specific names for the images I have in my head. The are several areas which were unimpressive, such as around the train station and south of Baker Beach, which are examples in the heart of the city. South San Francisco is a shithole everywhere I've seen and San Bruno is also nothing worth preserving. You don't even have to have your ego taken down by admitting they are worth developing, so start there?
I remember my first visit to San Francisco. The guy behind the desk at the hotel asked if I'd been in the city before. I said no, so he pulled out a map and a marker, outlined some areas and said "Don't go here, don't go there, have a nice day." I think one of the areas he warned me away from is known as "the tenderloin".
I live in a San Francisco 500 square feet, one bedroom apartment; no dishwasher, no parking space, and the rent is $2,500 a month. It is a nice area, but the car's windows are smashed all the time on my street. I am not happy at all with the situation in this nice city.
Sounds like a good deal. I was there visiting (live in Los Angeles) and the one bedroom rents started at over 5K per month. I would never move there, beautiful breathtaking city, but way overpriced. NY is now cheaper. The local government is to blame due to zoning restrictions.
I live in a Dallas 500 square feet condo, one bedroom, a dishwasher, my own parking space, my rent/mortgage is zero (bought it back in 1984, paid it off early 10 years ago). It's a nice area, never heard of car windows smashed in our complex, I'm happy😀 with the situation in this nice city, too.👍
Wow man! You really went all out for this video! Absolutely awesome. I love all the examples and when you making note of things to pay attention and come back to.
I should also add I really liked the interviews with people. It really makes the topic hit home when you get input form people, especially people who are personally being impacted.
I live in a town outside of San Francisco, and a three bedroom house goes for about a million dollars. It's crazy. But the good thing about that is that jobs here pay more to keep up with the cost of living
So how are you able to afford a million dollar home then? I would assume you'd need a salary of at least 350k to even think about buying it, or am I wrong?
Setting economics aside, another reason that San Francisco can't just build vertically like New York did is that, unlike New York, San Francisco sits near some pretty major fault lines. We have the same problem in LA: Even though it's one of the most populous cities in the world, we have very few super-tall buildings, because the engineering necessary to make sure they're safe during earthquakes is prohibitively expensive.
I don't understand why most tech companies have to be based in San Francisco or surrounding area. Can someone explain why uber or twitter can't move to another city (another state) in the US.
it's like a bases thing , most of them started from around each other , went to college with each other etc. it is a Bay are thing like The Bay area is Tech and internet New York is metropolis and financial DC is federal and government LA is Celebrity and entertainment Miami is vacation and weather Las Vegas is Casino , Hotels and Resorts New Orleans is party and French Orlando is amusement parks Houston and Dallas are Ultra high-tech and Oil Seattle Is Prosperity and Nature Boston is Balanced Philly is historical New Jersey is health care Honolulu is Vacation Detroit is Automotive Companies and So On and so on America overall is diverse Economy , Population , Geography is Vast and it is a Huge Very different country which is it's power I could go on about it but no city , state , location or land mark are alike but you can find cities or areas like the bay and the cities above with these stand points
not even overall most of Detroit does not look like this if I was to show you a video of how most of Detroit actually looks you'd be surprised , he's honestly showing the abandoned small areas for views but there are mansions here in city far way from downtown and Downtown is gorgeous it is so packed they started building lakeside condos that are now nearly finished , 10's of Houses get fixed every day , 2 billion dollar auto plants are supposed to open in the metro area from GM and ford and a new 367 million dollar stadium just got built downtown for the pistons and red wings , it is not even dangerous honestly people over hype it last year 310 people got killed car clashes included out of 689,369 people , that's literally a 0.31% chance out of dying out of a 1000 , for the most part it's people i'm white and the people literally won't bother you that's why it is crazy when I know people do not actually know Detroit , the only reason for abandoned houses is because jobs leaving the city being out sourced and racial segregation so houses were too many for the population and left there , I could show you guys if you'd like in a video?
The San Francisco Metro area has several of the top universities in the US. Many of their graduates started companies and want to stay here. Another reason is that most (really) of the venture capital available in the US is based within 70 miles of San Francisco. People with ideas come here to get the cash to fund a startup and stay near the source of cash. As an interesting result some of the universities encourage their professors to have businesses on the side, or at least help fund new businesses. That's how Hewlett-Packard got started for example.
There are a few different reasons. One is Infrastructure. All the companies in the area rely heavily on the internet and therefore need quality connections to the internet. San Francisco and surrounding areas supply that demand, but so do other areas. Second is they all have servers there that are not easily moved or removable, making it unfeasible to move to anywhere else due to the overwhelming cost associated with moving the servers and being down for the amount of time it would take to move the servers. Third, most of these companies bought their real estate when it was much cheaper than it is now, so for them, it's not as big a deal. Fourth, these are some of the most profitable companies in the world. Spending $50 Million on a site in the Bay Area vs. $25 Million elsewhere doesn't really affect their bottom line, so it's not a huge incentive to move. Think of a company like Google, that nets around $7 Billion a Quarter, or about $20 Billion a year. That difference is .9% of Google's net revenue, not that big a deal. Fifth, investments. California has, far and away, the largest private investments in businesses in the U.S. I saw somewhere that the amount the Bay Area invests in startups alone exceeds the business investments of the next 3 States COMBINED! There are hundreds of millions at stake, and they want those businesses close so they can monitor them. Sixth, access to talent. Now, of course, there is talent across the U.S. but everyone knows there is one place where talent for the tech industry congregates the most, and that's the Bay Area. The tech industry already runs a deficit in excess of 1 Million people, so you can't really afford to move somewhere else, hoping your employees move with you, especially when they can stay with the companies that will stay in the area and get new jobs. Seventh, cost of living. Now this one seems like it should be an incentive to move, but it's actually an incentive to stay and here's why. If tech companies leave the Bay Area, obviously Real Estate prices will start dropping, no big shocker there, if any major employers leave any city, the local real estate will suffer. The problem is, it's a little different in the Bay Area. It would be closer to Detroit in that no one would want to move in, so the people there couldn't sell their homes, at least, not for the price they bought it for. If they go bankrupt, they won't be able to buy a home again and it will make it much more difficult to rent a place wherever the companies had moved to. The reason why it would be bad for the companies, as opposed to something like Ford or GM leaving Detroit, hypothetically, is that Ford and GM hire lower skilled workers that are in abundance everywhere. This isn't true for the Tech Industry, where very high skilled workers are required at just about every level of work. If your work force can't follow you in significant numbers, and you can't hire a workforce elsewhere, you have to stay where you are. Eighth, Culture. Obviously, culture changes across the country, again no big shocker, but there is a specific culture that exists in California and more specifically the Bay Area. It's the hustle culture. People often think that the people that live in the Bay Area are a bunch of hippies who complain about everything and to a certain extent, it is more true than in other places, however, the people who live there are not a bunch of lazy bums who just walk around complaining about things all day long. They are working 12 hour shifs at their jobs, then Ubering in the evening, doing side work on the weekends, living with 4 other people in a two bedroom apartment, and more times than you would think, are very mean to people you would think they would be compassionate to, like homeless. These aren't the liberals you have heard stories about, they are ruthless, no nonsense people who work harder than just about anyone else in the country. This is important because of the lack of access to talent mentioned in Six means that the Tech Industry needs them to up their game to make up for the shortfall in talent. Moving somewhere else doesn't guarantee this level of commitment, especially since it's so rare already to work at that level anywhere in the country, so it's a big risk. Nineth, Immigration. The majority of the people that work in the Tech Industry were born abroad, so you would do well to settle in an area that is both accepting to immigrants and makes immigration easier. Not many states have both of those. California is exactly both of those, making it ideal in this respect. Tenth, Moving just moves the same problem. We are already seeing this play out in Texas. Now areas like Houston, Austin, and Fort Worth don't have NEAR the Tech Industry personnel that the Bay Area has, and those areas have already seen skyrocketing home prices. Just because you move somewhere else, doesn't mean you magically get to pay people less, and those people will demand homes and pay a boatload for them. Realistically, you might save a tiny bit on taxes compared to being in the Bay Area, but what you save there, you lose in SO many other respects, like lack of qualified personnel. It's not worth it ultimately to move. Eleventh, They DO move to other cities (Kind of). So, obviously, we know these companies can't, and don't want to, move elsewhere, BUT that doesn't mean they can't move less important functions out of the local area, or out of state even. Simpler tasks, or auxillery server warehouses that require minimal oversight can be moved to other states, or other locals within California. For example, Apple has a major site in Sacramento near where I live, with more sites from other Tech Companies set to open in the area, as Sacramento houses many of the people who work in the Bay Area as it's about 1/5th the price and only around 2-2.5 hours from almost anywhere in the Bay Area. Anyway, I might have missed a few points, but these are the big ones.
Actually they can add more land, they did this in Key West Florida and Manhatten New York. They added artificial land to be able to expand outwards in both cities, so maybe SanFran can do the same thing.
Zoning is a big issue here... I've lived here most of my life and it's always been one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. My parents traded a 3,000sq foot house on a 1/3rd of an acre in Orlando for a 1200sq ft house just outside the city limit for 25% more than the house in Orlando... I moved as a 9 year old more than 50 years ago and the housing bubble has been going to burst ever since... Sure there have been a few corrections but Bay Area real estate has always been a safe investment. The city has left large areas of the southeast part of the city zoned industrial because historically there were a lot of blue collar union jobs associated with the area. SF has long been a strong union town. The jobs however are mostly gone but the zoning remains.. Lots of household name companies started here.. Levi-Strauss, Folgers, MJB, Ghirardelli, Golden Grain, Schlage Lock, who at one time had plants in the city... It's a part of the city far from the tourist trail and could support a good deal more housing without sacrificing drastic changes to the city's culture. There is also a huge undeveloped area right at the southern edge of the city that's sat empty for years, formerly the Southern Pacific Bayshore Yards. One of the other problems of the Bay Area is the Balkanization of the transit systems. The greater bay area has more than 20 transit districts making commutes that require multiple systems a nightmare of uncoordinated schedules and long out of the way commutes.. Disconnected public transit has led to many tech companies offering private buses for their employees and many of this generation of tech workers are choosing to live in SF and commute to firms down the Peninsula like Genentech, Google, Facebook, Apple and on and on... This leads people to claim that they are fueling the price rise.. but they are just reacting to where their employees want to live.
Very interesting read & very insightful. Thank you for sharing this Graspon. Again what you guys have going on there is a very complicated issue that stems back many many years & I hope that you guys reach a very progressive resolution my friend. - Jabril
The Bay area is Tech and internet New York is metropolis and financial DC is federal and government LA is Celebrity and entertainment Miami is vacation and weather Las Vegas is Casino , Hotels and Resorts New Orleans is party and French Orlando is amusement parks Houston and Dallas are Ultra high-tech and Oil Seattle Is Prosperity and Nature Boston is Balanced Philly is historical New Jersey is health care Honolulu is Vacation Detroit is Automotive Companies and So On and so on America overall is diverse Economy , Population , Geography is Vast and it is a Huge Very different country which is it's power I could go on about it but no city , state , location or land mark are alike but you can find cities or areas like the bay and the cities above with these stand points
Where you been? Just an extension of the Silicon Valley. You know Facebook, UA-cam, Google, PayPal, Fitbit, and many others. We are all one big dysfunctional family around here.
That Brown Nerd its really not. i pay 1k a month for a two bedroom two bathroom two,story apartment. its expensive if you want to live in expensive neighborhoods. where 5 minutes east of those neighborhoods you get significantly less rent prices
Lots of retired military live in San Diego and work second jobs. With only one income, San Diego could never be affordable. Also, San Diego is in the corner of the country. Expansion to the north is stopped by Camp Pendleton and expansion to the east is stopped by national forests. The south is bounded by Mexico and expansion to the west is halted by the Pacific Ocean.
Like Rick said, Pendleton north, Mexico south, Ocean West, and he didn't mention the mountains out eastward. There's definitely some space in that direction, but it'll get maxed out eventually as well.
It's nice to see someone present things honestly and not heavily biased to an agenda. This however is not a new problem. Most cities deal with the very same problem. True, San Francisco may have a steeper problem but it's still the same problem. When you borrow against the future, the future inevitably caches up to you and they you pay the piper. Good luck to the people being caught up in it.
great point, well see how it unfolds. Unfortunately there isn't a terrible lot that you nor I can do about this issue Lucid, other than learn from it right - Jabril
SEFD Science We also need to be careful what we learn. I think it good that people want to to live in a nice place and have a bit of looking ambition to want to make there life better. Add up all the individuals and you end up with this issue. :(
Hm, difficult question. Here in Germany, we have regulations which would not allow Neil's problem, since a sudden increase of rent is not legal in such heights. According to the law, it is only legal to increase the rent by 20% in three years. * Also evictions are much slower over here Although this does not fix the disequilibrium, it might slow down its effects giving time to react to the development [e.g. new (higher) houses can be built before the rent prices get in absurd heights]. As a result, housing won't get absurdly expensive (at least not in a short time), but rather a matter of luck. * Of course, there are still other ways to get renters out of their home and not every renter knows about this...
it blows my mind that you don't have more followers, your videos are so well done. this was supper interesting being from the bay area myself knowing ill never be able to afford to actually live in the city.
Jabril, stumbled across you channel and love it! Would like you to take a look at Seattle. We are also having a huge tech explosion with many SF companies building offices and campuses here. The difference is there seem to be no rules in Seattle for building. The downtown area is becoming dark canyons with little on no sunlight all day. The apartments going up are cheaply built and way over priced (no rent control at all in Seattle). We have the rapid growth and increased housing (apartments and condos) but your average person can't afford the prices.
I love the way that you tackled this heavy subject. Your approach was appropriately serious yet respectfully light-hearted. If you have not already, you might consider a career in public service (e.g., public policy analysis or public planning etc).
This is the bread and butter of what I study in college and why I left CA: the intersection of economics and social justice. I wish I found this channel sooner! +SEFD Science if you ever want a hand on topics like this, hit me UP. I'll help ya shave 3 min off of videos like this. :D
aside from fighting change, there is an additional engineering cost relative to other cities, e.g. NYC due to earthquake resistent design considerations.
You are ABSOLUTELY adorable! Your soft spoken presentation is informative, and gentle and sweet. My dad was born there in 1918. I would LOVE for you to drag me all over San Francsiso. "We'll eat here!" "You'll love this!" ""Check out the amazing thread count on this hotel's bed!" Teach me about historic districts and architecture. Give me a three day whirlwind cultural extravaganza that will make me sob, giggle, say "wow" a lot and make me later fall into a deep, overstimulated sleep. You have a presence that makes me want to be dragged into every one of your videos. Can't wait for the next one! Take this old gal out let's paint the town!
I live in Alameda, a island right across the bay from San Fransico and a studio apartment here can go upwards of 2.5 thousand dollars, where most of my family lives, in Arkansas, you can get a 4 bedroom house for that type of rent.
Outstanding vid. It is just awesome to see a young man dig into economics and economic history to try and understand problems like SF's housing crisis. And this stuff matters. I would have added one key element to the explanation of the problem, however, that you failed to hit: All rental housing in San Francisco built before 1979 is subject to rent control, so landlords are only able to raise rents annually by about 60% of inflation. That means about 65% of SF's residents are living in rent-controlled buildings and a huge percentage of those are therefore paying rents that are far below the market rents so often quoted. It is only when a tenant leaves a rent controlled building that a landlord can raise rents back up to "market" and once the tenant moves in, they are again subject to limitations on annual increases. Why does this matter and why does it exacerbate the housing problem? Because people who live in rent-controlled apartments for more than a few years rarely move out. This is the dirty little secret of SF rent-control laws: The velocity of apartment turnover in SF is nowhere near that of a normal city. And normal apartment turnover is a crucial supply factor in cities that do not fix rental pricing. A huge potential supply of housing is essentially taken off the market because tenants do not feel they can move out and suffer market rents in a new space, and at the same time, the city restricts development of new housing that is not subject to rent control. Second, because rent control puts landlords in the position of not being able raise rents at the same rate as their expenses rise (upkeep, property taxes, insurance, etc.), the longer a tenant stays, the more of a problem covering expenses becomes--and this sets up an almost guaranteed adversarial relationship between landlords and tenants in pre-1979 buildings. Why? Because the only hope a landlord has to make money on their property is for tenants to leave occasionally so they can get their rents back up near market. But as evictions rose in the early yaers of rent control, the City made it harder and harder to evict tenants, trapping landlords into long-term tenants paying less rent than needed for the property, mortgage expenses, etc. So what is a landlord to do? They have very little control over their property. They can't raise rents (less than 2% per year for the last many years) and they cannot evict tenants for anything other than serious reasons (like non-payment of rent). That leaves them with only a three options to get out of an ever-increasing problem: 1) Make the property less livable to encourage tenant departures (which is illegal, of course, if landlords pro-actively try to make life miserable for tenants); 2) slow down or even stop reinvesting in property upkeep to preserve cash and in hopes that deteriorating conditions motivate tenant exits, 3) attempt to "buyout" tenants by offering them huge amounts of money to leave voluntarily (a process ALSO regulated by the City), or 4) exercise their limited rights to evict, which rights are both expensive, and come with pretty severe restrictions on any re-rental of the property for multiple years. So, landlords are stuck waiting, tenants are stuck with nowhere else to go at similar rents, tensions grow over time as the economics of tenancies worsen for each landlord, and the City continues to restrict new development. One of the most bizarre consequences of this predicament, where landlords have very little control over their private property, is that some estimate there are over 1,000 perfectly satisfactory, rentable apartments that are kept EMPTY by landlords. This is because the sales value of an EMPTY building is far higher than one that has solid, rent-paying tenants! Find one other city in the world where this phenomenon exists without rent-control being present. There is literally instant supply, already sitting there, but for landlord's reluctance to get trapped with ultimately underpaying tenants they cannot evict and rent-laws that do not respect tenant lease periods (when a lease ends, for example, a landlord has no right to kick out a tenant---the lease automatically goes to a month-to-month status and only ends when the tenant stops paying rent or moves out). So the SF story is not just about building more supply and/or limiting demand--it is fundamentally a consequence of well-intended rent-control regulations trying to restrict rental pricing on the majority of the housing stock. Bringing me to a final, fundamental truism in economics like supply and demand: Whenever you try and fix prices, instead of letting them float to the point of enabling supply/demand equilibrium, you get shortages. This is true of apples, housing, medical services, labor, clothing, everything. Try to put a lid on prices to try and help the poor? You just get less of the product and prices rise anyway, ultimately hurting the poor more than the rules would have ever helped. San Francisco needs to build more housing (vertical, as you note) and needs to slowly ween its way off rent-control and eviction restrictions so that landlords will want and want to retain tenants and tenants will not have such huge gaps between their rents and general market rents in the event that their needs change and they need to move. This was literally an economic experiment that has failed utterly (as has rent control all over the world where it has been attempted), creating an inevitable shortage problem, and is now so deeply entrenched and misunderstood that there is no political will to try and reverse the damage of price fixing. It is a disaster, and for all those lower-wage residents that every city needs to keep itself running and for whom SF thought they were protecting with rent-control, the only ones remaining are the ones in long-term, deteriorating rent-controlled apartments. The rest must live elsewhere and suffer long commutes if they work in SF. So over the long-term, rent-control laws ended up protecting only those tenants lucky enough to have moved to SF during a relatively small slice in time in the past--and the rest are screwed. That's my two cents, and I desperately hope Millennials learn more about basic economics so they can offer sustainable solutions to real problems, rather than the simplistic, self-damaging policies of their predecessors who wouldn't know supply & demand from quantum theory or small engine repair. Keep you curiosity indeed.
+whentoletgo hey, thanks so much for the detailed write up, I am about a quarter way through & will finish soon. Though I must say, that is one of the issues that I face which is brevity. I have a task to tackle a topic & not only make it make sense, but also fun & entertaining & rent control was something that I really wanted to bring up but that would of added another 20 minutes alone. Although you are correct, rent control is a huge variable in this crisis & needs to be brought into the spotlight. I've been thinking about doing a part 2 or addressing that information in some other fashion. Perhaps a special segment for my 2016 corrections video. Thanks again for your great comment my friend, I look forward for more of your perspective in the future. ✌ - Jabril
I was recently pushed out of Oakland and relocated to Atlanta, and i miss home like crazy. These archaic zoning laws is what's gonna eventually (sooner than later) push the tech companies out, and cause the local economy to crash right along with it. That's the only solution that i see to keep the tech companies and the people.
Antonio I am very sorry that youre away from home man, but thank you for sharing your story & input. I hope that you find peace in the near future. - Jabril
When I was looking for hotels to stay at in SF I found tons of pretty nice hotel rooms for like $150 per night so I think the average hotel price is a bit misleading.
Because of you and many in your generation, I'm hopeful for the future. I'm a millennial (on the older side of the generation 82) and I'm seeing more young people that are very compassionate and have a great desire to change the world for the better.
Interesting - good quality content :) I'm curious to see how SF will solve the problem and the outcome. I really love the look of SF and I can understand wanting to keep the city's character.
The supply and demand stuff talked about towards the beginning of the video is Macroeconomics, not microeconomics. Just finished a macroeconomics class, and that supply and demand curve was drilled into my brain like crazy.
Hi, I'm new to your channel and just subscribed. This was informative even for someone who's experiencing the problem first hand. I really like how clearly and thoroughly researched you are, and the little badges to call back a topic is neat. I do think, however, that the pace can be picked up a little. For example, you could paraphrase and/or edit down the interviewees instead of letting them speak for so long, it might work better for your narrative. Looking forward to more!
Hello tweph & welcome, I am very grateful to have you supporting SEFD Science! As for your criticism, I thank you for it, I will keep that note in mind moving forward, for I want to do nothing but make the show more enjoyable for people like you that watch the show :D - Jabril
Went from a party tricks video by 'Physics Girl' to a video discussing the microeconomics of real-estate in San Francisco... that's enough internet for tonight. Great video.
Great vid bro! Keep it up! Lived in the Bay Area while I was stationed at Travis AFB. I HATED the Bay Area for a lot of reasons (one being the price) but this was very interesting! Glad I am back in Florida, hopefully we dont experience the same supply and demand housing. Fl is getting more expensive. Great video.
Ha... Bruh, yasss indeed new subbie here!!! JUST what I needed with my cup of afternoon coffee! Very informative, plan on binge watching your brilliant content, tfs! 😊❤
Hi, New subscriber here, I learnt a lot about Economics and San Francisco even though my major (Medicine) isn't related to Economics in any sort of way. I would actually advise that it would be better of if San Francisco preserved its Culture than building new homes and apartments in its suburbs. Reason being that San Francisco has a rich culture and that culture is an important factor in our day to day lives, Culture describes how people live, what believe in and what people treasure. I think the best way to reduce the cost of living in SF is if people moved to the Rural areas in SF and beautify them by building malls, schools, more Tech companies, hotels and hospitals so that the people living in the suburbs of SF would easily get attracted and move to the rural areas, that way creating competition amongst real estate owners, which would trickle down the prices in housing and apartments in the suburbs. I don't know if I made any sense but great Vlog. Y'all just earned a new subscriber 👍🏾 -MC
Mapalo! Great to have you my friend, & thanks for sharing your input, I'd be interested to ee how that would affect SF, although, we will find out the real result of SF as the years unfold eh? ;) - Jabril
Mapalo Chabala you know what youre completely right, I say that as a forgetting San Diego resident, but you are completely right, the result of SF will affect us all. Are you a SF resident? - Jabril
Nah I'm from AZ but I have family in SF and they are so affected with the cost of living in San Francisco that's why I found the vlog so interesting and entertaining
I'm a San Francisco resident and have to say that while the idea is appealing, it's problematic in execution. Advising people to move to rural areas is the same thing mentioned in the video and a formerly prevalent attitude here of "just move to Oakland" Problem is most the land that can be developed in the Bay Area already has been developed. The suburbs exist and are housed to capacity as well unless any of the neighboring cities also decide to build vertically. The problem comes in that no city in the Bay Area really wants to accept responsibility for the massive influx of people we've experienced over the last 20 years. We all want more housing, but we all want someone else to build it, basically. While there are rural areas as well within the city, you'll find that a suburban house on the west side of the city (the more suburban area) is typically housing about 5 adults and sometimes up to 15 in a three bedroom home. So it's not like we're just neglecting our suburbs or forgetting they exist, but they're also densely populated, more so than you'd think to look at them, and not that much less expensive than getting a place in the city center. I would agree with the statement in the video that the answer is to build vertically. There are many protected buildings in the city preserved for their aesthetic, but due to a large variety of reasons, these buildings while old, are not well maintained and not terribly pleasing to look at. The Painted Ladies you show in the video are an example of buildings that are beautifully maintained, but there are many, many buildings in The Mission district that are not, but are preserved on principle when in fact it would be better for the city as a while to demolish them and build something better in their place.
Don't forget, San Francisco saw a major, "teardown," of existing construction following the earthquake, and firestorm of 1906. Afterwards came a hasty rebuilding, and a later realization something needed to be done to put the brakes on some of the unsafe reconstruction. Thus, a lot of zoning is related to safety, and damage mitigation in the event of the next, "big one." Oddly enough, some of the, "historical," aspects of San Francisco would be better off being replaced by newer, safer construction, but then you do lose the feel of the city. Anyway, beautiful city to visit, but I couldn't imagine (or afford) living there.
Yeah, there was so much rich history of that city & I just couldn't fit it all without creating like an hour long episode haha. Like rent control for example, didn't even mention it but it is a pretty huge deal for SF. - Jabril
we also need huge expansion into rapid transit with faster commute times. the economic implications of expanding bart and cal train are costly but it would really offload traffic to and from SF around the bay from people who just need to get to work.
Great video. And you're right, it's just not immediate SF. The entire bay area is beyond expensive. I work in the east bay, but commute from the central valley just like one of the guys you interviewed. Can't afford to live out here.
This is a great video SEFD! It also raises the moral question of when does fair profit become greed? You just got one new subscriber! PS: I got directed here by your link on Physics Girl's channel.
Very well done man. Also, to mention the iconic Napa and Silicon valleys are an hour away in both directions, North & South. This problem is way beyond San Francisco. It is the whole Bay Area. Northern Californians are having to move out of State to make ends meet. It's happening to my own family.
Fantastic video! Keep up the great work!San Fran can be saved by a LOT of careful planning and public communication on different alternatives...Building out into the bay is a realistic possibility.. Japanese have done as well as New York (World Trade Center)...
I would allow for skyscrapers to be built and put in building codes to maintain its current look. And if they're concerned about casting a shadow, require reflective surfaces above a certain height.
I would build new land to turn into a business district. Try to get the companies in low rise areas to move there. And convert where they were to residential.
I live in Durham NC and they are starting to cram housing wherever they can. Tearing down trees and making flat land where it was all hills. The 2 lane highways are now 5 lane freeways. Traffic is getting worse and worse. But we do have better jobs here nowadays compared to before.
In many popular cities around the world such as London, New York and Dubai new tall skyscrapers are not for average income families. In other words the new real estates are not meant to bring the prices down but attracts even more new residents to the area. I am sure that city will change over time just like everything does.
There is 3rd option. Do nothing. All teachers etc. will leave town. Town left with no police, teachers and cleaning staff will hire new more qualified people for way higher salary. After that they can still raise prices and it mind continue for quite long time.
No police crime will become rampant as people will drive over from nearby places. Criminals are much less afraid of private security than they are of real police.
hey guys I was late to add the poll at the end @19:22, please cast your vote if you're on desktop, I really want to know where you all stand :D
- Jabril
So historic or not, how do you tell someone their single house has to be replaced by a high rise apartment?
You have now told them for all piratical purposes that they must now live in an apartment because their house is gone.
Your merchandising link is messed up. I was interested in the cap and hoodie you were wearing in the video. Regarding your video, I was waiting for you to address the elasticity of demand as a determining factor in the ridiculous housing prices. If SF renters decided it was absolutely too expensive to rent and most chose to move outside the city, the owners could not command such high prices to rent. Unless they can afford their primary mortgage plus the rental property's mortgage as well, they'd be forced to either sell or bring the prices back down to prices mere mortals could afford. Just as people have little elasticity of demand when it comes to the price of a gallon of milk or gas, so too should the market be able to bring down the housing prices.
So is San Francisco more expensive than San Diego?very interesting video. learned a lot about the situation in SF.San Diego is starting to go the route of SF, unfortunately.Cheers
I think somewhere there needs to be a compromise, you can't keep every historic building as well as you can't keep raising prices. So i think that some historic buildings must go to lower prices but to a point to where it doesn't disrupt the culture and people who want to see that culture still can. Maybe one side of the peninsula should allow high rising buildings and more housing and the other should keep its classic look. I think the cultural side of the argument should give up some space for more people to live there to benefit not only people who want to live there but for their own rent and communities.
SEFD Science is it really that expensive
The culture will be destroyed if normal people can't afford to live there.
already happened.
I live here... it is happening. San Francisco and all the funky ass Silicon Valley young folks days are numbered.
Already happening and it's breaking my heart.
The cycle will continue, eventually prices will crash at some point .....before that time comes move away, live your life without being house or rent poor .... there's literally millions of places to live besides that open cesspool
filthbomb when they crash will houses be cheaper ? 😳
This guy should be on PBS teaching my children.
thank you for the compliment to the highest degree Benjamin. Much love 👍
- Jabril
Having been to San Francisco, I can tell you that it has several shitty neighborhoods, which still have low buildings. They can add a lot of additional housing without having to taint the landmarks and the nicer neighborhoods. With all the money that they have, the new buildings are probably going to look a lot nicer than the current ones too, upgrading the city, rather than ruining it. Future San Francisco could become even more iconic than it is now.
IMO, preserving the city is just an excuse. Landowners just want to keep things as they are, because they can rent poorly maintained properties for extreme prices. Landowners get a lot of say in city business, which is a good thing in most case, just not this time.
I live in San Francisco, and let me tell you that preserving the city is absolutely not an excuse. The architecture and history is one of the reasons even the middle class want to live there, if you get rid of that, many people wanting to live there won't even bother any more. Our culture is more tied to history and the past than most American cities and we definitely value it more. Try getting anyone to build in Golden Gate Park or the Presidio and you would have the entire bay area come down on you like a 10 ton boulder . We have a joie de vivre that's more reminiscent of a European city. Oh and we don't consider defacing and carving out the inner materials of our Victorians and Edwardians to be an upgrade by no means!
halifaxx55 I think you failed to read the entirety of my comment.
I'm curious. Can you tell me which ones are the shitty neighborhood or "districts" in SF?
QuangTran27 I don't remember specific names for the images I have in my head. The are several areas which were unimpressive, such as around the train station and south of Baker Beach, which are examples in the heart of the city.
South San Francisco is a shithole everywhere I've seen and San Bruno is also nothing worth preserving. You don't even have to have your ego taken down by admitting they are worth developing, so start there?
I remember my first visit to San Francisco. The guy behind the desk at the hotel asked if I'd been in the city before. I said no, so he pulled out a map and a marker, outlined some areas and said "Don't go here, don't go there, have a nice day." I think one of the areas he warned me away from is known as "the tenderloin".
I live in a San Francisco 500 square feet, one bedroom apartment; no dishwasher, no parking space, and the rent is $2,500 a month. It is a nice area, but the car's windows are smashed all the time on my street. I am not happy at all with the situation in this nice city.
i.. don't even know how to reply to this.. but you're brave Earth, [ deleted joke about you being Earth ]
- Jabril
Sounds like a good deal. I was there visiting (live in Los Angeles) and the one bedroom rents started at over 5K per month. I would never move there, beautiful breathtaking city, but way overpriced. NY is now cheaper. The local government is to blame due to zoning restrictions.
Someone smashes your car windows on a weekly basis and you name ita 'nice' city? Seriously, get out of there while you can! Earth to earth!
I live in a Dallas 500 square feet condo, one bedroom, a dishwasher, my own parking space, my rent/mortgage is zero (bought it back in 1984, paid it off early 10 years ago). It's a nice area, never heard of car windows smashed in our complex, I'm happy😀 with the situation in this nice city, too.👍
Wow man! You really went all out for this video! Absolutely awesome. I love all the examples and when you making note of things to pay attention and come back to.
I should also add I really liked the interviews with people. It really makes the topic hit home when you get input form people, especially people who are personally being impacted.
Hey Dale why don't you make videos anymore?
Mihael Namestnik Brbre
Life stuff had been taking up a lot of my time. But I have been working on a new video so keep an eye out! ;)
Thanks Dale! Glad that you enjoyed this episode! I am excited for your return as well!
- Jabril
SEFD Science
Haha, hey you and me both.
I live in a town outside of San Francisco, and a three bedroom house goes for about a million dollars. It's crazy. But the good thing about that is that jobs here pay more to keep up with the cost of living
Holaun Jesus Christ
I'm planning to work at SF. Are you telling even areas outside of SF is expensive as hell?
koban4max yes tooooo much
Depends.
So how are you able to afford a million dollar home then? I would assume you'd need a salary of at least 350k to even think about buying it, or am I wrong?
I really love your videos. You always take the time to really go in depth.
thanks VanDeGraph, I love all the smiles that you generate for the world. :D
- Jabril
San Francisco housing should be expanded into the North Bay where places are spread far apart and there would be room for expansion.
As a native Northern Californian, I'd rather have them urbanize Oakland and Berkley, before they build up North Bay..
The north bay isn't any cheaper in the big picture. The whole thing is a mess.
Thats what there doing here in Fairfield. They building up hella land out here now
Either way living is so expensive even people who make 6 figures a year have to share rent.
and the commute is 4 hours . no thank you
Why does this video felt like it has some 90;s vibe to it...
because the 90s/00s raised me & it will forever live through anything that I do, if I had to take a guess 😌
- Jabril
Setting economics aside, another reason that San Francisco can't just build vertically like New York did is that, unlike New York, San Francisco sits near some pretty major fault lines. We have the same problem in LA: Even though it's one of the most populous cities in the world, we have very few super-tall buildings, because the engineering necessary to make sure they're safe during earthquakes is prohibitively expensive.
I don't understand why most tech companies have to be based in San Francisco or surrounding area. Can someone explain why uber or twitter can't move to another city (another state) in the US.
it's like a bases thing , most of them started from around each other , went to college with each other etc.
it is a Bay are thing like
The Bay area is Tech and internet
New York is metropolis and financial
DC is federal and government
LA is Celebrity and entertainment
Miami is vacation and weather
Las Vegas is Casino , Hotels and Resorts
New Orleans is party and French
Orlando is amusement parks
Houston and Dallas are Ultra high-tech and Oil
Seattle Is Prosperity and Nature
Boston is Balanced
Philly is historical
New Jersey is health care
Honolulu is Vacation
Detroit is Automotive Companies and So On and so on
America overall is diverse Economy , Population , Geography is Vast and it is a Huge Very different country which is it's power I could go on about it but no city , state , location or land mark are alike but you can find cities or areas like the bay and the cities above with these stand points
not even overall most of Detroit does not look like this if I was to show you a video of how most of Detroit actually looks you'd be surprised , he's honestly showing the abandoned small areas for views but there are mansions here in city far way from downtown and Downtown is gorgeous it is so packed they started building lakeside condos that are now nearly finished , 10's of Houses get fixed every day , 2 billion dollar auto plants are supposed to open in the metro area from GM and ford and a new 367 million dollar stadium just got built downtown for the pistons and red wings , it is not even dangerous honestly people over hype it last year 310 people got killed car clashes included out of 689,369 people , that's literally a 0.31% chance out of dying out of a 1000 , for the most part it's people i'm white and the people literally won't bother you that's why it is crazy when I know people do not actually know Detroit , the only reason for abandoned houses is because jobs leaving the city being out sourced and racial segregation so houses were too many for the population and left there , I could show you guys if you'd like in a video?
The San Francisco Metro area has several of the top universities in the US. Many of their graduates started companies and want to stay here. Another reason is that most (really) of the venture capital available in the US is based within 70 miles of San Francisco. People with ideas come here to get the cash to fund a startup and stay near the source of cash. As an interesting result some of the universities encourage their professors to have businesses on the side, or at least help fund new businesses. That's how Hewlett-Packard got started for example.
There are a few different reasons.
One is Infrastructure. All the companies in the area rely heavily on the internet and therefore need quality connections to the internet. San Francisco and surrounding areas supply that demand, but so do other areas.
Second is they all have servers there that are not easily moved or removable, making it unfeasible to move to anywhere else due to the overwhelming cost associated with moving the servers and being down for the amount of time it would take to move the servers.
Third, most of these companies bought their real estate when it was much cheaper than it is now, so for them, it's not as big a deal.
Fourth, these are some of the most profitable companies in the world. Spending $50 Million on a site in the Bay Area vs. $25 Million elsewhere doesn't really affect their bottom line, so it's not a huge incentive to move. Think of a company like Google, that nets around $7 Billion a Quarter, or about $20 Billion a year. That difference is .9% of Google's net revenue, not that big a deal.
Fifth, investments. California has, far and away, the largest private investments in businesses in the U.S. I saw somewhere that the amount the Bay Area invests in startups alone exceeds the business investments of the next 3 States COMBINED! There are hundreds of millions at stake, and they want those businesses close so they can monitor them.
Sixth, access to talent. Now, of course, there is talent across the U.S. but everyone knows there is one place where talent for the tech industry congregates the most, and that's the Bay Area. The tech industry already runs a deficit in excess of 1 Million people, so you can't really afford to move somewhere else, hoping your employees move with you, especially when they can stay with the companies that will stay in the area and get new jobs.
Seventh, cost of living. Now this one seems like it should be an incentive to move, but it's actually an incentive to stay and here's why. If tech companies leave the Bay Area, obviously Real Estate prices will start dropping, no big shocker there, if any major employers leave any city, the local real estate will suffer. The problem is, it's a little different in the Bay Area. It would be closer to Detroit in that no one would want to move in, so the people there couldn't sell their homes, at least, not for the price they bought it for. If they go bankrupt, they won't be able to buy a home again and it will make it much more difficult to rent a place wherever the companies had moved to. The reason why it would be bad for the companies, as opposed to something like Ford or GM leaving Detroit, hypothetically, is that Ford and GM hire lower skilled workers that are in abundance everywhere. This isn't true for the Tech Industry, where very high skilled workers are required at just about every level of work. If your work force can't follow you in significant numbers, and you can't hire a workforce elsewhere, you have to stay where you are.
Eighth, Culture. Obviously, culture changes across the country, again no big shocker, but there is a specific culture that exists in California and more specifically the Bay Area. It's the hustle culture. People often think that the people that live in the Bay Area are a bunch of hippies who complain about everything and to a certain extent, it is more true than in other places, however, the people who live there are not a bunch of lazy bums who just walk around complaining about things all day long. They are working 12 hour shifs at their jobs, then Ubering in the evening, doing side work on the weekends, living with 4 other people in a two bedroom apartment, and more times than you would think, are very mean to people you would think they would be compassionate to, like homeless. These aren't the liberals you have heard stories about, they are ruthless, no nonsense people who work harder than just about anyone else in the country. This is important because of the lack of access to talent mentioned in Six means that the Tech Industry needs them to up their game to make up for the shortfall in talent. Moving somewhere else doesn't guarantee this level of commitment, especially since it's so rare already to work at that level anywhere in the country, so it's a big risk.
Nineth, Immigration. The majority of the people that work in the Tech Industry were born abroad, so you would do well to settle in an area that is both accepting to immigrants and makes immigration easier. Not many states have both of those. California is exactly both of those, making it ideal in this respect.
Tenth, Moving just moves the same problem. We are already seeing this play out in Texas. Now areas like Houston, Austin, and Fort Worth don't have NEAR the Tech Industry personnel that the Bay Area has, and those areas have already seen skyrocketing home prices. Just because you move somewhere else, doesn't mean you magically get to pay people less, and those people will demand homes and pay a boatload for them. Realistically, you might save a tiny bit on taxes compared to being in the Bay Area, but what you save there, you lose in SO many other respects, like lack of qualified personnel. It's not worth it ultimately to move.
Eleventh, They DO move to other cities (Kind of). So, obviously, we know these companies can't, and don't want to, move elsewhere, BUT that doesn't mean they can't move less important functions out of the local area, or out of state even. Simpler tasks, or auxillery server warehouses that require minimal oversight can be moved to other states, or other locals within California. For example, Apple has a major site in Sacramento near where I live, with more sites from other Tech Companies set to open in the area, as Sacramento houses many of the people who work in the Bay Area as it's about 1/5th the price and only around 2-2.5 hours from almost anywhere in the Bay Area.
Anyway, I might have missed a few points, but these are the big ones.
Great production quality! Really informative as well. I'm new to SF so this was a nifty video to watch
Thanks CoolName, I am glad that you enjoyed it & was able to get value out of this episode! :D
- Jabril
I salute that you are so knowledgeable and analytical....
great video! good job buddy, keep them coming :)
Thanks a bunch Reformatt my friend! More is on the way!
- Jabril
Reformatt Show jij bent toch Nederlands?
Actually they can add more land, they did this in Key West Florida and Manhatten New York. They added artificial land to be able to expand outwards in both cities, so maybe SanFran can do the same thing.
Key west is paradise
Very good and intelligent video. Well Done!
Zoning is a big issue here... I've lived here most of my life and it's always been one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. My parents traded a 3,000sq foot house on a 1/3rd of an acre in Orlando for a 1200sq ft house just outside the city limit for 25% more than the house in Orlando... I moved as a 9 year old more than 50 years ago and the housing bubble has been going to burst ever since... Sure there have been a few corrections but Bay Area real estate has always been a safe investment.
The city has left large areas of the southeast part of the city zoned industrial because historically there were a lot of blue collar union jobs associated with the area. SF has long been a strong union town. The jobs however are mostly gone but the zoning remains.. Lots of household name companies started here.. Levi-Strauss, Folgers, MJB, Ghirardelli, Golden Grain, Schlage Lock, who at one time had plants in the city... It's a part of the city far from the tourist trail and could support a good deal more housing without sacrificing drastic changes to the city's culture. There is also a huge undeveloped area right at the southern edge of the city that's sat empty for years, formerly the Southern Pacific Bayshore Yards.
One of the other problems of the Bay Area is the Balkanization of the transit systems. The greater bay area has more than 20 transit districts making commutes that require multiple systems a nightmare of uncoordinated schedules and long out of the way commutes.. Disconnected public transit has led to many tech companies offering private buses for their employees and many of this generation of tech workers are choosing to live in SF and commute to firms down the Peninsula like Genentech, Google, Facebook, Apple and on and on... This leads people to claim that they are fueling the price rise.. but they are just reacting to where their employees want to live.
Very interesting read & very insightful. Thank you for sharing this Graspon. Again what you guys have going on there is a very complicated issue that stems back many many years & I hope that you guys reach a very progressive resolution my friend.
- Jabril
Your videos are really good, I don't understand why you don't have many more subs. Your quality is great! Vsauce level stuff :)
Pablo, as long as you continue to join me in feeding our curiosity, the sky is the limit my friend :) Thanks for the support!
- Jabril
Love the format of your videos!
Much love Hayley, thanks you :D
- Jabril
What a great vid. OMG my friend, You nailed it !! I hope to hear from you at sometime. I lived in Vacaville, and spent alot of time in San Farncisco.
WoW, I didn't know that so many famous companies are based in San Francisco!
*Mind Fried*
they are not based there, they ARE there.
The Bay area is Tech and internet
New York is metropolis and financial
DC is federal and government
LA is Celebrity and entertainment
Miami is vacation and weather
Las Vegas is Casino , Hotels and Resorts
New Orleans is party and French
Orlando is amusement parks
Houston and Dallas are Ultra high-tech and Oil
Seattle Is Prosperity and Nature
Boston is Balanced
Philly is historical
New Jersey is health care
Honolulu is Vacation
Detroit is Automotive Companies and So On and so on
America overall is diverse Economy , Population , Geography is Vast and it is a Huge Very different country which is it's power I could go on about it but no city , state , location or land mark are alike but you can find cities or areas like the bay and the cities above with these stand points
Where you been? Just an extension of the Silicon Valley. You know Facebook, UA-cam, Google, PayPal, Fitbit, and many others. We are all one big dysfunctional family around here.
why is san diego so expensive boss
That Brown Nerd its really not. i pay 1k a month for a two bedroom two bathroom two,story apartment. its expensive if you want to live in expensive neighborhoods. where 5 minutes east of those neighborhoods you get significantly less rent prices
Lots of retired military live in San Diego and work second jobs. With only one income, San Diego could never be affordable. Also, San Diego is in the corner of the country. Expansion to the north is stopped by Camp Pendleton and expansion to the east is stopped by national forests. The south is bounded by Mexico and expansion to the west is halted by the Pacific Ocean.
Like Rick said, Pendleton north, Mexico south, Ocean West, and he didn't mention the mountains out eastward. There's definitely some space in that direction, but it'll get maxed out eventually as well.
Great video.
But the biggest problem is greed. From investors, companies, realtors and everyone in general.
The problem can't be fixed overnight.
Great video! You did a wonderful job portraying the information! It's great to see actual UA-cam content. Cheers!
Looks like I just found a new econnomics teacher
Great work on the vid
Haha, thanks for the support Nickolia :)
- Jabril
Just seeing the bridge in the background makes me miss home. I just got a new job offer out there. I cant wait to move back this summer.
It's nice to see someone present things honestly and not heavily biased to an agenda. This however is not a new problem. Most cities deal with the very same problem. True, San Francisco may have a steeper problem but it's still the same problem.
When you borrow against the future, the future inevitably caches up to you and they you pay the piper. Good luck to the people being caught up in it.
great point, well see how it unfolds. Unfortunately there isn't a terrible lot that you nor I can do about this issue Lucid, other than learn from it right
- Jabril
SEFD Science We also need to be careful what we learn. I think it good that people want to to live in a nice place and have a bit of looking ambition to want to make there life better. Add up all the individuals and you end up with this issue. :(
Hm, difficult question. Here in Germany, we have regulations which would not allow Neil's problem, since a sudden increase of rent is not legal in such heights. According to the law, it is only legal to increase the rent by 20% in three years. * Also evictions are much slower over here
Although this does not fix the disequilibrium, it might slow down its effects giving time to react to the development [e.g. new (higher) houses can be built before the rent prices get in absurd heights]. As a result, housing won't get absurdly expensive (at least not in a short time), but rather a matter of luck.
* Of course, there are still other ways to get renters out of their home and not every renter knows about this...
yeah I legit dont know what solution they should employ. Lots of pros & cons with everything.
- Jabril
Man, your voice is so soothing. Can listen for hours
it blows my mind that you don't have more followers, your videos are so well done. this was supper interesting being from the bay area myself knowing ill never be able to afford to actually live in the city.
Thanks Caitlyn, & if promise if you switch & tell yourself that you will be able to live in the city, you will ;)
- Jabril
AS A GUY COMING FROM ATL HOLY SHIT I LEARN SO MUCH IN THIS VIDEO. THANK MAN!!!!!
Jabril, stumbled across you channel and love it! Would like you to take a look at Seattle. We are also having a huge tech explosion with many SF companies building offices and campuses here. The difference is there seem to be no rules in Seattle for building. The downtown area is becoming dark canyons with little on no sunlight all day. The apartments going up are cheaply built and way over priced (no rent control at all in Seattle). We have the rapid growth and increased housing (apartments and condos) but your average person can't afford the prices.
Thank you Gene! & yeah I've been getting this request a lot, I'll add it to my look-into list! Thanks for your support!
- Jabril
I love the way that you tackled this heavy subject. Your approach was appropriately serious yet respectfully light-hearted. If you have not already, you might consider a career in public service (e.g., public policy analysis or public planning etc).
This is the bread and butter of what I study in college and why I left CA: the intersection of economics and social justice. I wish I found this channel sooner! +SEFD Science if you ever want a hand on topics like this, hit me UP. I'll help ya shave 3 min off of videos like this. :D
Avataroo, thank you kindly for your offer, I will for sure keep you in mind moving forward!
- Jabril
This was so intetesting.... i just watched the whole video omfg love your work man
I'm really happy to have found your channel! Keep Going!
Welcome Lions Den, I am glad that you've found my channel too, I hope that you enjoy what's to come!
- Jabril
Great video. Very well informed and interesting. Nice to see UA-camrs but a lot of hard works in their videos.
aside from fighting change, there is an additional engineering cost relative to other cities, e.g. NYC due to earthquake resistent design considerations.
This was a very interesting video to watch didn’t get bored. Keep it up
Great video. San diego resident here. I could never give up San diego for San Francisco
You are ABSOLUTELY adorable! Your soft spoken presentation is informative, and gentle and sweet. My dad was born there in 1918. I would LOVE for you to drag me all over San Francsiso. "We'll eat here!" "You'll love this!" ""Check out the amazing thread count on this hotel's bed!" Teach me about historic districts and architecture. Give me a three day whirlwind cultural extravaganza that will make me sob, giggle, say "wow" a lot and make me later fall into a deep, overstimulated sleep. You have a presence that makes me want to be dragged into every one of your videos. Can't wait for the next one! Take this old gal out let's paint the town!
I live in Alameda, a island right across the bay from San Fransico and a studio apartment here can go upwards of 2.5 thousand dollars, where most of my family lives, in Arkansas, you can get a 4 bedroom house for that type of rent.
Outstanding vid. It is just awesome to see a young man dig into economics and economic history to try and understand problems like SF's housing crisis. And this stuff matters. I would have added one key element to the explanation of the problem, however, that you failed to hit: All rental housing in San Francisco built before 1979 is subject to rent control, so landlords are only able to raise rents annually by about 60% of inflation. That means about 65% of SF's residents are living in rent-controlled buildings and a huge percentage of those are therefore paying rents that are far below the market rents so often quoted. It is only when a tenant leaves a rent controlled building that a landlord can raise rents back up to "market" and once the tenant moves in, they are again subject to limitations on annual increases. Why does this matter and why does it exacerbate the housing problem? Because people who live in rent-controlled apartments for more than a few years rarely move out. This is the dirty little secret of SF rent-control laws: The velocity of apartment turnover in SF is nowhere near that of a normal city. And normal apartment turnover is a crucial supply factor in cities that do not fix rental pricing. A huge potential supply of housing is essentially taken off the market because tenants do not feel they can move out and suffer market rents in a new space, and at the same time, the city restricts development of new housing that is not subject to rent control. Second, because rent control puts landlords in the position of not being able raise rents at the same rate as their expenses rise (upkeep, property taxes, insurance, etc.), the longer a tenant stays, the more of a problem covering expenses becomes--and this sets up an almost guaranteed adversarial relationship between landlords and tenants in pre-1979 buildings. Why? Because the only hope a landlord has to make money on their property is for tenants to leave occasionally so they can get their rents back up near market. But as evictions rose in the early yaers of rent control, the City made it harder and harder to evict tenants, trapping landlords into long-term tenants paying less rent than needed for the property, mortgage expenses, etc. So what is a landlord to do? They have very little control over their property. They can't raise rents (less than 2% per year for the last many years) and they cannot evict tenants for anything other than serious reasons (like non-payment of rent). That leaves them with only a three options to get out of an ever-increasing problem: 1) Make the property less livable to encourage tenant departures (which is illegal, of course, if landlords pro-actively try to make life miserable for tenants); 2) slow down or even stop reinvesting in property upkeep to preserve cash and in hopes that deteriorating conditions motivate tenant exits, 3) attempt to "buyout" tenants by offering them huge amounts of money to leave voluntarily (a process ALSO regulated by the City), or 4) exercise their limited rights to evict, which rights are both expensive, and come with pretty severe restrictions on any re-rental of the property for multiple years. So, landlords are stuck waiting, tenants are stuck with nowhere else to go at similar rents, tensions grow over time as the economics of tenancies worsen for each landlord, and the City continues to restrict new development. One of the most bizarre consequences of this predicament, where landlords have very little control over their private property, is that some estimate there are over 1,000 perfectly satisfactory, rentable apartments that are kept EMPTY by landlords. This is because the sales value of an EMPTY building is far higher than one that has solid, rent-paying tenants! Find one other city in the world where this phenomenon exists without rent-control being present. There is literally instant supply, already sitting there, but for landlord's reluctance to get trapped with ultimately underpaying tenants they cannot evict and rent-laws that do not respect tenant lease periods (when a lease ends, for example, a landlord has no right to kick out a tenant---the lease automatically goes to a month-to-month status and only ends when the tenant stops paying rent or moves out). So the SF story is not just about building more supply and/or limiting demand--it is fundamentally a consequence of well-intended rent-control regulations trying to restrict rental pricing on the majority of the housing stock. Bringing me to a final, fundamental truism in economics like supply and demand: Whenever you try and fix prices, instead of letting them float to the point of enabling supply/demand equilibrium, you get shortages. This is true of apples, housing, medical services, labor, clothing, everything. Try to put a lid on prices to try and help the poor? You just get less of the product and prices rise anyway, ultimately hurting the poor more than the rules would have ever helped. San Francisco needs to build more housing (vertical, as you note) and needs to slowly ween its way off rent-control and eviction restrictions so that landlords will want and want to retain tenants and tenants will not have such huge gaps between their rents and general market rents in the event that their needs change and they need to move. This was literally an economic experiment that has failed utterly (as has rent control all over the world where it has been attempted), creating an inevitable shortage problem, and is now so deeply entrenched and misunderstood that there is no political will to try and reverse the damage of price fixing. It is a disaster, and for all those lower-wage residents that every city needs to keep itself running and for whom SF thought they were protecting with rent-control, the only ones remaining are the ones in long-term, deteriorating rent-controlled apartments. The rest must live elsewhere and suffer long commutes if they work in SF. So over the long-term, rent-control laws ended up protecting only those tenants lucky enough to have moved to SF during a relatively small slice in time in the past--and the rest are screwed. That's my two cents, and I desperately hope Millennials learn more about basic economics so they can offer sustainable solutions to real problems, rather than the simplistic, self-damaging policies of their predecessors who wouldn't know supply & demand from quantum theory or small engine repair. Keep you curiosity indeed.
+whentoletgo hey, thanks so much for the detailed write up, I am about a quarter way through & will finish soon. Though I must say, that is one of the issues that I face which is brevity. I have a task to tackle a topic & not only make it make sense, but also fun & entertaining & rent control was something that I really wanted to bring up but that would of added another 20 minutes alone. Although you are correct, rent control is a huge variable in this crisis & needs to be brought into the spotlight. I've been thinking about doing a part 2 or addressing that information in some other fashion. Perhaps a special segment for my 2016 corrections video.
Thanks again for your great comment my friend, I look forward for more of your perspective in the future. ✌
- Jabril
I was recently pushed out of Oakland and relocated to Atlanta, and i miss home like crazy. These archaic zoning laws is what's gonna eventually (sooner than later) push the tech companies out, and cause the local economy to crash right along with it. That's the only solution that i see to keep the tech companies and the people.
Antonio I am very sorry that youre away from home man, but thank you for sharing your story & input. I hope that you find peace in the near future.
- Jabril
How dose ATL compare to the Bay Area?
I think your style of teaching is brilliant! Thanks for the video, stealing the cookie badge reminder idea! lol
When I was looking for hotels to stay at in SF I found tons of pretty nice hotel rooms for like $150 per night so I think the average hotel price is a bit misleading.
ahaha, that ending with Hey Arnold was everything.
Because of you and many in your generation, I'm hopeful for the future. I'm a millennial (on the older side of the generation 82) and I'm seeing more young people that are very compassionate and have a great desire to change the world for the better.
i agree. it was like 2,500 a month in stockton for a trash- looking-house . The yard was DISGUSTING. there was a dead rat at the back
Great video! Learned a lot! Thank you!
Bobbie! I am glad that it could help! I hope that you enjoy what's to come!
- Jabril
Interesting - good quality content :) I'm curious to see how SF will solve the problem and the outcome. I really love the look of SF and I can understand wanting to keep the city's character.
lol at 2:30 you totally re-filmed the audio. I've done that before, too XD
yeah, it gets the best of us, but surprisingly I am shocked at how little people call it out haha.
- Jabril
great video , the guy on the bike at the end had me rolling lol
funny thing is, I knew it was coming even though I seen him a distance away before I started the take haha
- Jabril
The supply and demand stuff talked about towards the beginning of the video is Macroeconomics, not microeconomics. Just finished a macroeconomics class, and that supply and demand curve was drilled into my brain like crazy.
Wow man great quality video man!
I live in contra costa county. Which is the county east of SF. The sad part is the Bay Area as a whole is expensive
Wow this video was so well structured and explained
hey just found your channel instantly subscribed very informative keep the good work.
Thank you for the support type .9, I hope that you enjoy what's to come!
- Jabril
Hi, I'm new to your channel and just subscribed. This was informative even for someone who's experiencing the problem first hand. I really like how clearly and thoroughly researched you are, and the little badges to call back a topic is neat. I do think, however, that the pace can be picked up a little. For example, you could paraphrase and/or edit down the interviewees instead of letting them speak for so long, it might work better for your narrative.
Looking forward to more!
Hello tweph & welcome, I am very grateful to have you supporting SEFD Science! As for your criticism, I thank you for it, I will keep that note in mind moving forward, for I want to do nothing but make the show more enjoyable for people like you that watch the show :D
- Jabril
Really cool video!!! great explanation, history mentioned..all is so informative!!!!!! Thank you a lot!
Went from a party tricks video by 'Physics Girl' to a video discussing the microeconomics of real-estate in San Francisco... that's enough internet for tonight. Great video.
+Wallaby1010101 sounds like a great time Wallaby! Haha, thank you for the compliment!
Awesome, Thanks for so informative and user-friendly info video :)
no Alex, thanks for watcing SEFD Science my man!
- Jabril
Great vid bro! Keep it up! Lived in the Bay Area while I was stationed at Travis AFB. I HATED the Bay Area for a lot of reasons (one being the price) but this was very interesting!
Glad I am back in Florida, hopefully we dont experience the same supply and demand housing. Fl is getting more expensive. Great video.
Ha... Bruh, yasss indeed new subbie here!!! JUST what I needed with my cup of afternoon coffee! Very informative, plan on binge watching your brilliant content, tfs! 😊❤
LG, much love, thank you for the inspiring comment!
- Jabril
awsome job with the video, gave me alot of information to process
Glad to help Jaywood, I hope that you consider subscribing. :)
- Jabril
I died at the price increase bit. great video as always.
haha glad that you enjoyed it Bb!
- Jabril
Well done guy! Greetings from the South Bronx of NYC (NYC’s new Gold Coast) .............
Hi,
New subscriber here, I learnt a lot about Economics and San Francisco even though my major (Medicine) isn't related to Economics in any sort of way.
I would actually advise that it would be better of if San Francisco preserved its Culture than building new homes and apartments in its suburbs. Reason being that San Francisco has a rich culture and that culture is an important factor in our day to day lives, Culture describes how people live, what believe in and what people treasure. I think the best way to reduce the cost of living in SF is if people moved to the Rural areas in SF and beautify them by building malls, schools, more Tech companies, hotels and hospitals so that the people living in the suburbs of SF would easily get attracted and move to the rural areas, that way creating competition amongst real estate owners, which would trickle down the prices in housing and apartments in the suburbs. I don't know if I made any sense but great Vlog.
Y'all just earned a new subscriber 👍🏾 -MC
Mapalo! Great to have you my friend, & thanks for sharing your input, I'd be interested to ee how that would affect SF, although, we will find out the real result of SF as the years unfold eh? ;)
- Jabril
Haha we don't have to wait and let things unfold, we have to find solutions now or never before the rich take over SF
Thank you great being here
Mapalo Chabala you know what youre completely right, I say that as a forgetting San Diego resident, but you are completely right, the result of SF will affect us all. Are you a SF resident?
- Jabril
Nah I'm from AZ but I have family in SF and they are so affected with the cost of living in San Francisco that's why I found the vlog so interesting and entertaining
I'm a San Francisco resident and have to say that while the idea is appealing, it's problematic in execution. Advising people to move to rural areas is the same thing mentioned in the video and a formerly prevalent attitude here of "just move to Oakland"
Problem is most the land that can be developed in the Bay Area already has been developed. The suburbs exist and are housed to capacity as well unless any of the neighboring cities also decide to build vertically. The problem comes in that no city in the Bay Area really wants to accept responsibility for the massive influx of people we've experienced over the last 20 years. We all want more housing, but we all want someone else to build it, basically. While there are rural areas as well within the city, you'll find that a suburban house on the west side of the city (the more suburban area) is typically housing about 5 adults and sometimes up to 15 in a three bedroom home. So it's not like we're just neglecting our suburbs or forgetting they exist, but they're also densely populated, more so than you'd think to look at them, and not that much less expensive than getting a place in the city center.
I would agree with the statement in the video that the answer is to build vertically. There are many protected buildings in the city preserved for their aesthetic, but due to a large variety of reasons, these buildings while old, are not well maintained and not terribly pleasing to look at. The Painted Ladies you show in the video are an example of buildings that are beautifully maintained, but there are many, many buildings in The Mission district that are not, but are preserved on principle when in fact it would be better for the city as a while to demolish them and build something better in their place.
Awesome video!!!!!!! Very informative and funny!! Thanks for doing it
Don't forget, San Francisco saw a major, "teardown," of existing construction following the earthquake, and firestorm of 1906. Afterwards came a hasty rebuilding, and a later realization something needed to be done to put the brakes on some of the unsafe reconstruction. Thus, a lot of zoning is related to safety, and damage mitigation in the event of the next, "big one." Oddly enough, some of the, "historical," aspects of San Francisco would be better off being replaced by newer, safer construction, but then you do lose the feel of the city. Anyway, beautiful city to visit, but I couldn't imagine (or afford) living there.
Yeah, there was so much rich history of that city & I just couldn't fit it all without creating like an hour long episode haha. Like rent control for example, didn't even mention it but it is a pretty huge deal for SF.
- Jabril
Great video. Good job!
Thanks minority5
- Jabril
Great informative video, thanks for explanation
no thank you for watching :)
- Jabril
Love the info too by the way
Thanks for this Video it really help me understanding whats going on in the High price of San Francisco
we also need huge expansion into rapid transit with faster commute times. the economic implications of expanding bart and cal train are costly but it would really offload traffic to and from SF around the bay from people who just need to get to work.
lol the music is so epic
+Up and Atom 🙆🙆🙆
- Jabril
You deserve a lot more subbs, keep up the good work!
+
thanks Malak! Keep on watching :D
- Jabril
Great video as always man
Thanks Mr Smooth B)
- Jabril
Great video. And you're right, it's just not immediate SF. The entire bay area is beyond expensive. I work in the east bay, but commute from the central valley just like one of the guys you interviewed. Can't afford to live out here.
Awesome vid man, keep it up!
This is a great video SEFD! It also raises the moral question of when does fair profit become greed? You just got one new subscriber! PS: I got directed here by your link on Physics Girl's channel.
Ahhh Physics Girl! I love her! & thanks for the praise Mike, I hope that you enjoy what's to come!
- Jabril
3 hours commute? wow! my commute to college here in MO is 35 minutes. 3 is just wow
I've got you beat, mine is 25 :D
- Jabril
Dude, dope video. Much props. Do a vid on NYC!
Congratulations, very good documentary. In Barcelona, Spain happens something very similar
Thanks Karel! 👌
- Jabril
Very well done man. Also, to mention the iconic Napa and Silicon valleys are an hour away in both directions, North & South. This problem is way beyond San Francisco. It is the whole Bay Area. Northern Californians are having to move out of State to make ends meet. It's happening to my own family.
Fantastic video! Keep up the great work!San Fran can be saved by a LOT of careful planning and public communication on different alternatives...Building out into the bay is a realistic possibility.. Japanese have done as well as New York (World Trade Center)...
Darren, I believe too my friend. Never give up hope.
- Jabril
I love this video! The Vsauce jumps are great! :P You got a new sub :D
Thank you Dogelele, I hope that you enjoy the projects that are coming :)
- Jabril
Your video is awesome. You are a very smart person!
I couldn't catch the 1863 LGBT part I have heard of nothing of the sort- More 1963 on
That was a typo look at the picture that he had attached to it. Should have been 1963 not 1863.
I would allow for skyscrapers to be built and put in building codes to maintain its current look. And if they're concerned about casting a shadow, require reflective surfaces above a certain height.
I would build new land to turn into a business district. Try to get the companies in low rise areas to move there. And convert where they were to residential.
Ducksauce for mayor
- Jabril
I live in Durham NC and they are starting to cram housing wherever they can. Tearing down trees and making flat land where it was all hills. The 2 lane highways are now 5 lane freeways. Traffic is getting worse and worse. But we do have better jobs here nowadays compared to before.
Brilliant video, keep up the good work
Very proud of you young man. You have spent your time wisely. Much love . This comes from a 55 year old white man. Lol
This video taught me so much
Glad to be able to help wicker!
- Jabril
That was a great video, I really enjoyed it. I love San Francisco just the way it is. If someone is meant to be there, things will work out ♥
+Vonda Krakar Love I think this is a really interesting take on it, thanks for sharing Vonda!
- Jabril
Hay bay mom
In many popular cities around the world such as London, New York and Dubai new tall skyscrapers are not for average income families. In other words the new real estates are not meant to bring the prices down but attracts even more new residents to the area. I am sure that city will change over time just like everything does.
earthquake will solve the problem.
They'll probably go from $8000/month to $15,000/month after an earthquake.
most of san fran is more earth quake proof if it is newly built
Andrey Karavayev you are evil
An earthquake will give many techies a second thought about living in the City....
i just hope and earthquake follow by a tsunami happened just to see what happen
There is 3rd option. Do nothing.
All teachers etc. will leave town. Town left with no police, teachers and cleaning staff will hire new more qualified people for way higher salary. After that they can still raise prices and it mind continue for quite long time.
No police crime will become rampant as people will drive over from nearby places.
Criminals are much less afraid of private security than they are of real police.