13 mind-blowing facts that show just how expensive San Francisco really is

1. The Bay Area is home to more wealthy people than any other of the most populous US metro areas, according to the US Census.

The median household income in San Francisco brings in $98,710 — around 63% more than the national median household income of $60,336.

The city has the third highest number of billionaires in the country thanks to its technology sector, according to Wealth-X's 2019 Billionaire Census report.

2. The typical rent in San Francisco exceeds $4,000 — more than 2.5 times the typical national rent.

The median rent price in the US is $1,700. In San Francisco, it's $4,506. San Francisco is also the most expensive city in the US to rent a two-bedroom apartment.

Even co-living spaces, created for affordability, run $1,900 a month for a room with a bunk-bed, reported Business Insider's Katie Canales.

3. The typical price of homes listed in San Francisco is $1.3 million — 4.4 times the typical national price of homes listed.

The national median price of homes listed is $289,900.

San Francisco is the US city with the most million dollar homes — 81% cost $1 million or more, according to a Trulia report.

San Francisco's housing market is so dire that nearly half of its residents said in a 2018 Bay Area Council advocacy group survey that they plan to move away soon.

Single-family homes could cost as much as $5 million in five years, Nellie Bowles of The New York Times reported.

4. One of the city's cheapest neighborhoods, Bayview, has an average home listing price of $890,000.

But some homes go for less than that — a 480-square-foot 'fixer' recently sold for $600,000.

According to the listing, it could "easily expand" to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house as it sits on a 2,500 square-foot lot, reported Canales.

5. To buy a typical San Francisco home with a 20% down payment, residents need to earn $303,000 — what it takes more than six years for the median US worker to earn.

The median US worker earns $46,696 annually, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Only 12% of households can afford to buy a home based on this estimation, Melia Robinson reported, citing a report from Paragon Real Estate.

6. To live comfortably as a homeowner in San Francisco, residents need to earn $230,286 — what it takes the median US worker to earn in nearly five years.

As a San Francisco renter, you need to earn $164,214 to live comfortably, according to a GoBanking Rates study. It takes the median US worker 3.5 years to earn that much.

Even the $142,000 salary of the average Bay Area tech worker isn't enough; nearly 60% of tech workers can't afford homes in the area, Robinson reported.

7. Some residents are also living in houseboats and vans as a housing alternative.

A tech worker lived in his startup's office for a year because he couldn't afford rent.

Tech worker Jonathan Gaurano said in a YouTube video that he lived in his San Francisco startup's offices for an entire year, after his landlord abruptly quadrupled his rent, reported Business Insider's Nick Bastone.

8. Even tech moguls and startup founders are having trouble finding homes San Francisco, where real estate goes to the highest bidder.

And a 1,000-square-foot home with no working plumbing and a pile of rotting mattresses stacked in the kitchen sold for more than $520,000 in 2018, reported Business Insider's Hilary Brueck.

9. The number of San Francisco residents living in vehicles has increased by 45%.

This has caused San Francisco's homeless population to increase by 17% to 8,011 over the past two years, reported Business Insider's Katie Canales, citing the San Francisco Chronicle.

The region's tech boom and housing shortage are behind these increases, which indicate that San Francisco's long-standing homelessness crisis is worsening, Canales said.

10. San Francisco is the most expensive US city to raise a family; a family of four needs to earn $148,440 a year, nearly triple what the median US worker earns in one year.

That's $12,370 a month, according to Quentin Fottrell of MarketWatch, citing the Economic Policy Institute.

More than half of tech workers, who typically make a six-figure salary, said that the increased cost of living in the area has caused them to put off having kids, according to a survey by the app Blind.

11. A family of four earning up to $117,400 in the area is considered low-income — the highest threshold of its kind in the nation, according to the federal government.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development determined this number based on median income and average housing costs, reported Karen Zraick for The New York Times.

12. A single person in San Francisco can expect to spend an annual total of $69,072 on necessities — nearly 50% more than what a median US worker earns in one year.

That's $5,756 a month, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Costs in this calculation include housing, food, transportation, healthcare, other necessities, and taxes, not including savings or discretionary spending.

13. San Francisco residents think it takes $4 million to be wealthy — nearly twice as much as what the rest of the nation thinks.

Americans believe it takes an average of $2.3 million to be wealthy, according to Charles Schwab's 2019 Modern Wealth Survey.