All the crazy things happening because of San Francisco's ridiculous housing prices
San Francisco's housing crisis has reached epic proportions. As of last year, the median house price in San Francisco was 6 times higher than the median price of existing homes in the US.
San Francisco now has the highest percentage of million dollar homes in the US, according to online real estate broker Trulia. This interactive map shows exactly where and how fast the housing boom has occurred in the San Francisco region.
According to real estate marketplace Zumper, San Francisco is also the most expensive rental market in the US, with the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment going for $3,590.
This housing flyer will give you a better idea of how crazy rental prices are.
So people who don't want to spend thousands of dollars on housing but still live in the area are getting creative.
Take Brandon, a 23-year old Google engineer who declined to give his last name to us. Rather than settling into an overpriced San Francisco apartment, Brandon decided to move into a 128-square-foot truck — in the company's parking lot.
Brandon tells Business Insider's Kathleen Elkins that he's saving 90% of his income by living in this little shack.
Another Google employee, Pete D'Andrea, and his wife Kara, spent nearly 2 years living in this van parked in the company's parking lot. It allowed them to save 80% of their take-home pay, and now they own a house in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Some people are moving onto boats. Sarah Carter, a 23-year old employee of an e-commerce company, bought a boat of her own on Craigslist and now lives there, spending about $350 a month in total living costs.
If you want to get more creative, just build a pod in someone else's apartment. Peter Berkowitz, a 25-year old illustrator, pays about $400 a month to live in this box in the corner of his roommate's living room.
The pod comes with a bed and LED lights. But according to Curbed, the Department of Building Inspection just cracked down on Berkowitz's idea and ruled it an illegal dwelling unit, meaning he'll probably soon have to move out.
Luke Iseman, a 31-year old Wharton grad, came up with a business targeting people seeking affordable housing. He's geting people to live (illegally) in converted shipping containers for $1,000 a month.
A $1,000/month container doesn't sound too bad when some people are renting a tent for $899 a month.
Some people might be going a little too far. One business school-bound woman on Craigslist said she was looking for a paper marriage so she could sublease her rent controlled apartment in San Francisco — because she can't legally sublease her apartment to anyone who isn't family.
One Reddit user suggested you could save about $700 a month if you lived in Las Vegas and commuted to San Francisco by flight instead.
People short on cash are offering stock options as part of housing offers, according to Klout cofounder Joe Fernandez.
The housing crisis is causing all kinds of social issues too. For example, San Francisco was having trouble finding enough teachers because the cost of living in the city was getting out of control.
It's creating a lot of homeless people too. The 22 bus that runs 24 hours in Palo Alto is called "Hotel 22" because it serves as an unofficial shelter for homeless people.
Former Yelp employee Talia Jane's blog post famously went viral after she complained about San Francisco's high cost of living to Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman.
Despite all this, demand for space is still high in San Francisco, and people are willing to pay up. Even a home where a mummified body was found was on the market for nearly $1 million.
While this dilapidated house in San Francisco's Outer Sunset neighborhood sold for $1.21 million just two weeks after getting listed for $799,000.
And don't expect the housing market to cool down anytime soon. Zillow predicts home values in the Bay Area will increase again this year, with some parts jumping as much as 7% from last year.
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