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San Francisco Prices?

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If San Francisco is so expensive, How can people afford it? I know there are a lot of homeless people, but there are a lot of people who arent. Do people make more money out there or what? How can a person work a single job and still afford a place to live?

Travel Tips

You can afford to live there if you have a steady job in SF or have double-income with a partner. Most people in SF have pretty regular, annual salaries (ie 50-90k) and very, very few have 150-250k plus salaries.

Also remember, California is a credit-card society. People do live from paycheck to paycheck and put everything on credit. So it "appears" like they are doing alright, but... if you dig deeper, they have hardly any savings.

Most regular SF people with regular salaries live in the shitty, dangerous parts (ie. Mission, Potrehill Hill, Bernal Heights, Excelsior, Tenderloin etc.) of San Francisco. That's also how they can afford it. Like what most people said, people in SF have multiple roommates if they are single and renting - yuckkk. That's the brutal reality.

Of course there's always the UPPER-CRUST of society in SF that live in Presidio or Nob Hill or Pacific Heights. That's like 2% of the population. Maybe even less. That's life..
Others

Most people I know have roommates. Rent is expensive, but the prices of other goods are comparable to other cities.

Plus, the minimum wage is $9.15 here.
If you didn't buy Real Estate before Prop 13 you can't afford to buy there with under $100,000 income. Everything is over a million. Most jobs pay about double what they pay in WALMARTISTAN. The poverty level is $37,000 and the minimum wage is over $10 an hour.

If you work for the government you get transfered out there three years before you retire so your pension will based on the highr pay.
I was paying $2500 a month rent.
On the other hand food is cheap, you don't need a car, and there are other areas you can save in. If I could I would live there
I was born and grew up in San Francisco, but my family had to move out of our apartment that we lived in for 15 years due to raising rents. We ended up purchasing a home in East Oakland, and our mortgage is cheaper than our SF rent.

So to answer your question, SF residents either have inherited their home, share an apartment with 10 other people, have really good paying jobs, or are non-natives who have lots of money in their bank account.
As a native who owns a condo and makes less than 100K (and my place was WAY less than 1M), it can be done, but not super easily. I started by having roommates and saving ALOT. When I moved out solo, I found a small, inexpensive place that still allowed me to save. Now, I have had to shift my lifestyle a bit to afford my place, but it's ok.

It is doable, but it's hard work. Unlike other cities, people in their 20's generally don't buy homes. We wait a little while longer. Many move out into the 'burbs to own. Some decide living in the City is more important than owning, and just continue to rent. The pay here is a little more than in other places, too.

It's also about expectations. I am not going to have a huge 4 BR hous, and that's ok. I had to decide what was more important to me...owning in a City I loved, or moving out to the burbs where I had no friends but could have a big house. For me, the former was the better option.