Since you're a developer out of a good university, you will be fine living in the city. I'm assuming you're making at least $100k at the very minimum, and have no dependents. There are still good deals to be had in SF, you just have to know what neighborhoods are overpriced and which are underpriced.

You should be able to get a good-sized studio for under $2500/month, which is a reasonable portion of your salary. If you're cool with roommates, you can get a nicer room in a more convenient part of the city.

> ...100k at the very minimum...

If its a big corporation sure, but not at a startup.

That said, he could also live in one of the various co-ops in SoMa for not too much money (if he's fine sharing a room). And the inner-Richmond does have cheap rent as well (~$750-1000 per single room)

Maybe at an unfunded startup. But at a funded startup, you should be expecting wages a little bit higher than bigcorp wages, due to the risk profile.

Where's the risk if you're getting paid above market? Time was people joined a startup in order to make their equity valuable. If all these funded startups are paying above market a large number of potentially viable ones will go belly up in an implosion of Roaring Teens opulent overspending.

The risk is that you don't get the bonuses and stock grants that you would at a big corporation.

Wait, sharing a room??? What the hell?

Even though this isn't quite on the topic of Bay Area rent, room and apartment sharing is pretty prevalent in Beijing as well, with similarily ballooning rent prices. Whilst I was living there, I shared an apartment with 3 other people, the landlord and 2 other chinese guys which were sharing their room. In fact, most of the younger foreigners I happend to hang around with shared apartments, and I wouldn't be suprised at some of them sharing rooms either. The only guy under 25 where I'm certain that he had his own flat to live in had a mother who used to work in real estate. Proably the most cramped situation that was described to me by an expat involved a girl that i met in one of the cities posher nightclubs who came to Beijing to find a modeling job, who was sharing an apartment with 5 other girls. Presumably, they did share rooms. And this is foreigners that came to Beijing despite of that. I cannot imagine how cramped some of the BeiPiao (Chinese migrants coming to Beijing) are willing to live just in order to stay in the city.

So if you're young, unmarried and you're not incredibly fussy about living together with other people, I think you should absolutely go for it. Having to share a room isn't some kind of ungodly indignity, especially if you get along with your roommates.

There's a large gulf between sharing flats and sharing rooms though. Sharing flats is common all over the world for obvious reasons, sharing rooms seems like a good time to question why you're in a certain place.

Its fairly common now. I know a lot of people that have rented out their living rooms. And one friend of mine has even rented out the porch (not sure on how that works).

So.. where's a good place to live in SF?

If I were looking again now, I'd check Glen Park, Twin Peaks / Noe Valley, and Inner Richmond. All 3 are pretty close to the happening parts of the city, relatively reasonably priced, and have their own merits. Glen Park is quiet and has Bart access, Twin Peaks has views, Noe Valley is very conveniently next to the Mission and the Castro, and Inner Richmond has some of the best food in the city.

Tip: you don't have to go to Tartine every morning.

Doesn't hurt to try it out! That's what I'm doing (been here for 3 months now). If you ever get nervous or have any last-minute questions feel free to ping me!

Thanks for the kind words. I might take you up on that.

I'm assuming it's some kind of tech job. Keep in mind there are thousands of people living in the city who make minimum wage. You're going to be doing substantially better than them.

Find a share house with people with similar interests, get a studio in the Tenderloin or (potentially) move to the East Bay.

Either way you're going to have a blast. :)

Most of those people aren't starting to rent a place now. Someone I know moved to SF about 7 years ago. If he were to move, rent for something comparable is more than 2x what he's paying.

Why don't their landlords do anything about this shortfall?

I don't understand what you're objecting to. Rent control is indeed the reason the person I was discussing has only had their rent rise with CPI.

San Francisco has excellent (for long term tenants) rent control.

Thanks for the information!

I guess that leads to `excellent' non-upgrading of houses that have long term tenants in them.

I think "strong rent control" is the uncontroversial phrasing.

If the owner refuses to do maintenance, you can stop paying rent altogether until they do it.

Yes. But they won't upgrade anything.

If you're not paying rent, you can probably afford to upgrade it yourself...

you can live basically anywhere in the east bay for pretty cheap and hop bart into the city btw. source: first 22 years of my life.

Have you tried to rent in the east bay lately?

Still cheaper than SF.

I recently moved to the East Bay from Los Angeles - I gave up on even trying to find a place to live in SF. I'm paying 2X the rent I had in Silver Lake (which is a relatively expensive part of LA) and competition was so tough I had to go to over 10 open houses just to find something decent a landlord would rent to me. Even the East Bay is pretty insane right now.

Bah, get yourself some roommates and enjoy the ride of a lifetime.

Sydney is worse. Rent is about the same, everything else is more expensive.