Can somebody give me a perspective on how much they pay for housing ? I did a quick craigslist search expecting studios to be 2500 a month but it only took me a minute to find a very reasonable 950 A month studio apt.
According to google maps, this was about 10 minutes away from the heart of San Francisco (when there was no traffic). I'm guessing google doesn't paint the whole picture, and it really is as far as you say it is.
Personally, if I had gotten a job in downtown SF with 6 figures, and no family, I'd have no problem living there and saving up. It doesn't look THAT bad does it? It's even got an outside area. Just my opinion though.
I moved to the city 3 years ago and you could find a nice 1 bedroom in Noe/Mission/Glen Park (southern part of the city, but still pretty desirable) for $2000-$2300 no problem.
Rents have gone up from there, but I've seen a number of units listed recently, in the same area, for $2400-2700.
If you want to spend $5000 for a one bedroom, you can do it, but it's not quite as bad as some of the articles make it out to be. In fact, a friend just rented a 3-bedroom house last year for $4500/month in a very desirable neighborhood.
(Somewhat un-PC thing that a real estate agent told me when I first moved to the Bay: "Go where the lesbians are. They tend to sniff out the best value in real estate, and when they move in, the neighborhood usually becomes more community-oriented, safer, and cleaner." I've heard a couple times that the Excelsior has recently developed a large lesbian population.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/san-francisco-media...