This is just one example of a house in San Angelo TX, not that I am suggesting that anyone move here, sorry for the hijack
http://www.era.com/properties/san_angelo-tx-305_w_ave_b-76901-CBR224832909
Median income in San Francisco is about $20,000 higher than the national average, but that still won’t buy you a house. As for renting, I rent – a two-room apartment (that’s two rooms, not two bedrooms). I am fortunate that because of rent control I don’t need a roommate. I would love to have more space (at least more closet space, and maybe some kitchen counters), but I value the other things I love about San Francisco more.
This is an important point - to live in SF is to live small and tight. If you are used to living big and expansive (relatively - house with garage and lawn, extra rooms, etc.) it will be a MAJOR adjustment. You end up having less stuff, just because there isn’t any place to put it (and you don’t have the money to spend on “stuff”).
Also, if the OP is coming from Alaska, consider the difference in state income taxes as well as over all cost of living - California doesn’t send out oil revenue checks like Alaska does.
One thing everybody seems to agree on is, expensive, expensive, expensive . . . Jeez, how did all those jobless hippies survive on Haight-Ashbury back in the day?! 
They weren’t even all of them homeless!
When I moved from Dubuque to Berkeley in October, I went from a job that paid $23 an hour and renting a 2-bedroom apartment for $525, to (the same job with less work) that paid $55 an hour and renting a 1-bedroom apartment for $1,350.
Then my manager turned out to be a micro-managing, procrastinating martinet who had to be better at the job than I was so I quit, but that’s a different story.
Currently looking to be spending about $1,500 a month rent on a 1 bedroom or studio in the east bay or south bay, depending on where I find work.
And, short of winning the lottery, I would not live near downtown and own a car. Maybe if I lived in the Sunset and rented a house for $2,250, but not downtown, Nob hill, tenderloin, or anyplace you’d rent an apartment.
From what I remember, “expensive, expensive, expensive” relates mostly to housing. Overpriced houses and exorbitant rents - 10 years ago, our studio apartment in the Castro went for $1100 dollars. But at the same time, I had sold my truck (the ex had a little Honda and besides you don’t really need a car if you live in the city), so there was a few hundred dollars to help balance things out. And besides that it’s not like bologna is twice as much in SF or newspapers cost $10 or anything.
If you can handle “small and tight”, as **Icarus **noted, it’s not like you have to be a millionaire d to live in the city. But you can’t be broke – and roommates abound even past young-adult hood.
No, but there is an 8.5% sales tax (recently lowered from 9.5%). Since there is no state sales tax in Alaska, you’ll have to remember to add that to your cost of living.
You might also consider that the Bay Area is overdue for a major earthquake which will almost certainly cause serious damage and loss of life one of these days.
The incredible prices in the last few years has mainly been driven by the tech boom. While the rest of the country is struggling, technology is one of the few sectors that is flush with cash and desperate for talent, bidding up wages. Last year, Google was routinely handing out million dollar retention bonuses to engineers who received job offers from Facebook and everyone is cautiously eyeing the end of the Facebook lockout (6 months from the IPO) which will result in the creation of a thousand new millionaires. Rumors are rents in certain high demand areas of the city (Mission & Noe Valley) might rise an additional 30 - 50% over their already rapidly growing rate.
If the OP is from the part of Alaska that gets earthquakes, the earthquakes may be smaller than he (she?) is used to. They get really big earthquakes in Alaska.
It wasn’t always this way. There was no tech boom back in the 60’s.
When I moved out of the Bay Area in 07, I had reverse sticker shock. Mr. Neville was looking online at houses in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh where we wanted to live. I remember him calling me over and saying, “here’s one for $250,000”. I said, “Nuh-uh! What’s wrong with it?” We’re paying less for our mortgage now than we were for rent in the Bay Area, and our house now is much bigger than our apartment there was.
I also grew up in Oregon, but lived for 4 years in Oakland and 3 years in San Francisco. While in San Fran I lived in a good location near the famous “House of Prime Rib” and “Hard Rock Cafe.” Danielle Steele lived across the street, but I didn’t even know that was a house, it was so big that for the longest time I thought that it was some sort of museum or library, LOL.
Anyway to answer your question, I found many things that I liked and many things that I hated about living in SF. Part of my attitude is the result of growing up in Oregon in a small town environment and not being used to the big city.
Pros : the restaurants and plentiful and usually crazy good. The ethnic food is particularly good, Asian of all types, Italian, etc. There are plenty of things to do for just about anyone, whether you like eating, shopping, going to art galleries, museums, whatever. If you like baseball, you can’t beat catching the Giants at their beautiful ballpark. The people are interesting, you can meet all kinds here.
Cons : the traffic and especially the parking is unbelievably bad. Cost of living is abominable. Even a dinky apartment can easily bankrupt you. Weather is not California warm. In 3 years I never left the apartment without my coat or sweater, even in the dead of summer. The fog rolls in almost every day, so even if it starts out warm, by 3pm, it will be cold. If you are outdoorsy, your options are more limited than if you lived in Oregon for instance. There is Golden Gate park, which is great, but it’s not really the same. If you are a golfer, you are pretty much limited in your golf courses unless you leave the city. There are only 4 courses that are really within the city limits, and only really one big two deck driving range.
Overall, I liked my time in SF, but for me I think it is a really fun place to visit for a week or two, but the little aggravations of day to day living (like having the garbage truck wake me up every morning, and having to live in an apartment rather than a hosue) made me not want to stay.
Long time resident of SF, but I’ve lived elsewhere for short stints. People have already mentioned the pluses (weather, culture, setting, walkability, food) and negatives (weather, cost, homeless, traffic) of the city. To me, the main positive of the city is its tolerance. Now, I’m not saying everyone is open-minded and unbiased, but for the most part people are very accepting of alternative life styles and cultures. A lot of this is due to the tremendous diversity of the population and its progressive politics. This is not only true for SF, but for most of the Bay Area.
Yes. If the existence of people with very different lifestyles from yours around you bothers you, or if you don’t like seeing evidence of such lifestyles in public, the Bay Area is not the place for you. If seeing gay or lesbian couples holding hands or kissing in public bothers you, San Francisco is right out.
Just to give you an idea, in addition to the gay pride parades, there is an annual BDSM/leather street fair in San Francisco. Of course, not everybody in San Francisco goes to this street fair, but if the existence of something like that in your city would bother you, San Francisco probably isn’t the right place for you.
I live in the Sacramento area, about 2 hours from SF, absolutely love to visit and I would love to live there if we could afford it and my job allowed for it. It is crazy expensive. If you have general California dreaming, if you gave us a checklist I am sure we could find the PERFECT place, because California has almost every climate imaginable.
P.S. I never ever get tired of looking at the Golden Gate Bridge, no matter where I am in San Francisco I HAVE to know where it is so if possible I can get a glimpse of it. It is truly spectacular.
Most of the local posters have got the pros & cons down pretty well.
But, one can live very close to SF, say a 30 minute BART or Caltrain ride, and have almost none of the bad stuff (not that RE is cheap anywhere around here, but you can have land with your megabuck house, or get a older fixer upper for well under half a million). And then use that short ride to experience most of the fun stuff. And SF can be fun. To live in SF is to live the lifestyle.
Some weird stuff- due to the homeless issue, there’s many things missing or strange in SF, such as the smell of stale urine in many areas, no *‘all you can eat for a flat rate’ *restaurants, few public restrooms, and the most uncomfortable bus stop benches you can imagine.:eek:
I would like to point out if you’re still looking for a place in SF
www.craigslist.org is the obvious choice
but
www.Padmapper.com puts a really awesome interface on top of those craigslist ads.
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Some weird stuff- due to the homeless issue, there’s many things missing or strange in SF, such as the smell of stale urine in many areas…
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Label that one as strange, not missing, sadly. Actually, you will come to dread that first light rain of the season as the whole city will suddenly stink of months-old piss that seeped into every crack and pore of the sidewalks and streets :eek: and you’ll be yearning for an all-out gully-washer to rinse it all away.
Speaking of street stink, the general lack of rain tends to make the storm sewer catchbasins dry out. In many (most?) areas, SF still has a combined sewage and storm drain system, so it’s not uncommon to be standing at a corner waiting for the light to change and get a good whiff of ewww.
San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality. I think it was Jorma Kaukonen who said this, and boy was he right.
As others have said, it can be difficult to live in San Francisco - it’s extremely expensive, the traffic is insane and it’s not very kid-friendly. It is, however, the most awesome city, with stunning views, amazing restaurants and TONS of interesting people.