Other cheaper area home buying options for San Franciscans

Home ownership versus renting is up in San Francisco over the last few years, but making monthly mortgage payments is more difficult than ever.

The San Francisco Chronicle considered the minimum income you’d need to purchase a home, including condos, in 19 popular neighborhoods. That number is a whopping median home price just under $1 million.

So where can the average San Franciscan earner live in 2016?

Curbed magazine did the math to figure that out. First, the San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership projects a median household income of just over $84,000 in 2016.

While the federal government has long prescribed spending only 30 percent of monthly income on housing, we’re increasing that margin to 50 percent today because that’s more realistic.

Our median household can probably afford a home in any neighborhood that can extend a monthly mortgage cost of $3,500 a month.

The Chronicle used Trulia data for the last six months to calculate a cost based on a 20 percent down payment, 30-year mortgage, and 3.75 percent interest rate.

The results show that only two neighborhoods - the Tenderloin and the Bayview - manage to be attainable using these figures.

The census does provide a higher median San Francisco income of more than $88,500 a year but even using that figure isn’t enough to be able to afford the average home in the next least expensive neighborhood, the Excelsior.

Curbed then researched condos for more neighborhood options which is when prospects became a little better in that market. Using 2016 condo sales figures from

Paragon Real Estate, the same 20/30/3.75 formula from before, and the highest of the available income estimates ($88,500), a few extra neighborhoods popped up including the Outer Richmond, Civic Center, Ingleside Heights, Hunters Point, and Candlestick Point, Visitacion Valley, Ocean View, and Silver Terrace.

That’s ten neighborhoods most San Franciscans can potentially buy, assuming a generous definition of the median wage, decent loan terms, and that locals are willing to commit way more to housing than is usually recommended.

If that doesn’t tell you just how much most people here want to keep living in San Francisco, nothing will.

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