San Francisco drops to 3rd most expensive city for renters
 

When New York City surpassed San Francisco as the most expensive city in which to rent an apartment in August 2021, it was the first time any major metro cost more than SF since Zumper started tracking rental data in 2014. Now, just over a year later, San Francisco has dropped again, becoming the third most expensive city for renting, according to new data from Zumper.



https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/ar...g-17533740.php

Nature is healing.

omg are you really going to make us have to clik thru all that? :haha:

tl;dr -- number two is now boston -- and number four is san jose. :shrug:

SF always gets harangued for cost-of-living so this is a welcomed development to me, plus SF also has the highest income.

City, State/Median 1bd Rent/Median 2-Person Family Income
1 New York, NY $3,860($67,164)
2 Boston, MA $3,060($93,199)
3 San Francisco, CA $3,020($130,768)
4 San Jose, CA $2,600($115,563)
5 Miami, FL $2,510($45,854)

So the figures appear really low for a median 2-person income. FL seems to have some serious issues if the median 2-person income is only $45,854 in Miami.

Florida may be the most expensive state with crazy wealth inequality when adjusted for income. It's a very hard place to live in and even though people keep moving here in droves, many get the reality check very fast.

Can someone please explain to me how Boston became that expensive? Sure, it's a nice city with a white collar job base, but doesn't have quite the same sex appeal of some of the other more traditionally expensive metros.

Boston has been in the top 5 for decades, and usually among the top 3. A lot of high paying jobs + limited housing supply.

Boston is the San Francisco for people who like four seasons.

And wicked awesome urban fabric throughout.

You never hear about Boston. You hear about Harvard or MIT or vague gestures towards the "East Coast" but Boston the city doesn't attract a lot of attention. Nobody cares about the Red Sox. Except for bad mob crime movies, commercials for Sam Adams beer, and Seth MacFarlane, you don't really see it mentioned much. When I think of Boston I think of watching PBS shows as a kid like Zoom or how in elementary school choir we sang a song about a dude named Charlie who got trapped in the subway, which is weird when you think about it.

Obviously it's no surprise the city proper would be an astronomically expensive place to live, but I always thought Massachusetts outside the city was sort of rust belt and decaying similar to upstate NY?

i can't think of too many US cities that have more urban sex appeal than Boston.

Most US "cities" are vastly inferior to it.

Maybe in terms of urban fabric but demographics wise it’s vastly different.

Yeah, which is the subtext for "limited housing supply".

Boston has an unusually large college student population, and a lot of good-paying jobs in a lot of fields, from finance to biotech. Couple that draw with insufficient housing production and prices stay high.

Boston is very high profile in the Eastern U.S. No doubt somewhat higher profile than Philly, and in the same general tier as DC. It doesn't have quite the global feel of the biggest U.S. metros but it's a heavyweight. Not quite the Bay Area, but not tremendously off either.

There isn't much to Mass outside the Boston CSA, and this small area is mostly college towns and second home areas for wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians. So, no, not particularly Rust Belt anymore. Maybe Springfield, a bit, but not really. And Upstate NY near Mass isn't really Rust Belt. It's more of the college town/second home/recreational feel. The whole Hudson Valley, and hilly scenery north of NYC, whether in NY, CT or MA, is pretty expensive these days, with bad housing shortages. The real Rust is to the west of the Hudson Valley/Catskills.

Listen, I know Boston is beautiful and has an incredible urban fabric.

But when I say sex appeal, I'm not talking the traits urban enthusiasts like ourselves love. I'm talking about the general American populace...most people all over the country don't dream one day of moving to Boston the way they do LA or NYC; nightlife is pretty staid there and socially it's in many ways a pretty stuffy, close-up-early kind of city. It's not one where the likes of Madonna would've shown up off a greyhound with just $5 on her to pursue her big city dreams. No Bravo! reality shows are filmed there, etc. etc. That sort of pull is often what makes the other cities so expensive and desirable.

What you're describing basically applies to NY and LA, in North America, and nowhere else. How many movies or songs feature Dallas, or Toronto, or Denver? Yeah, Boston doesn't have mythical urban appeal spanning the globe, but that applies to few cities worldwide. It's a desirable city, and a lot of people want to move there and plant roots.

You invoke the "general American populace . . . most people all over the country"--surely you know by now that most Americans don't move to/settle in a city based on "sex appeal," epic nightlife, Bravo reality-show filming schedules, or "big city dreams?" What Madonna wanted to get out of New York City in 1977 is not what the average American wants out of their hometown in 2022. And while it may not be uncommon for teenagers, especially of older generations, it's not at all correct to claim in this day and age that "most people all over the country dream one day of moving to Los Angeles or New York City."

Boston draws people in due to its top notch universities and high-paying jobs, and it retains many of those who can afford to buy nice houses in safe areas with good schools, where they can successfully raise their families.

On that side of the nation, only New York City would draw in the small minority of Americans who move to/settle in places because they can satisfy their 'big city dream' of living in a frequent filming location with epic nightlife that draws in those who strive to become rich and famous in the popular culture.

That list is much larger than just NY and LA. Miami, Nashville, Austin, New Orleans, Vegas, and Houston, as well as Chicago and Philadelphia to a lesser degree, would all count IMHO.

Dallas, Fort Worth, Denver, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Phoenix, San Diego, Tampa, Orlando, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, and others have the more family friendly button-up close-up shop early vibe.