40% of the San Francisco Area Population Might Move Because of Housing Costs

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Two out of five residents of the nine-county region have given serious thought to moving away -- mostly because of high housing costs, according to a survey released today by a business and public policy group.

The Bay Area Council's annual poll found that concerns about housing ranked as the region's second-most-vexing problem, behind transportation woes.

Even with some recent cooling in the local housing market, the price for a middle-of-the-road single-family home hovers around $628,000, or about triple the national average. That means many families with two income-earners are having a hard time managing.

"In some cases they're cashing out, and in some cases they just can't afford to stay," said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, which conducted the survey of 600 randomly selected people from Jan. 16 to 23.

Although 35 percent of respondents ranked transportation as their highest concern, 19 percent said housing was the biggest problem. Forty percent said they have considered moving out of the region, and 70 percent of those cited high housing costs as a major factor.

In 1996, as the real estate market began to recover from the early 1990s recession, only 1 percent of respondents cited housing as a big concern.

I guess Fannie Mae and the Federal Reserve's easy money didn't make things more affordable for people in San Francisco.The Blue city is rather expensive unless you've got a trust fund.Still no word yet on a declining dog population in San Francisco.