A recent report mentioned a couple earning a combined annual income of more than $360,000 was unable to find an apartment in San Francisco within their budget, highlighting the rising cost of living in the city.
Katrine Razniak, 27, joined LinkedIn in 2022 as a recruiter with an annual salary of $70,000. After switching to tech company Rippling, her salary increased to $180,000. Her partner, Adam Woodbury, 39, a software engineer, earns an annual salary of $185,000. While these incomes would be seen as a ticket to middle- and upper-class life in other cities, that doesn’t seem to be the case in San Francisco.
Razniak and Woodbury were looking for a one-bedroom apartment with rent under $5,000 per month. However, when they viewed over 30 units, they found out they were all either over their budget, or too competitive. In the end, they decided to give up.
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Razniak said, “I’m not completely hopeless, but I feel like I can’t stay in San Francisco anymore.” Woodbury added, “At some point, we both gradually realized that staying here no longer made sense.”
Razniak said she thought that once she earned $200,000 a year, she would no longer have to worry about money. However, last year she and her friends stopped going to restaurants and started cooking and dining together at home while watching reality TV shows.
According to reports, while the cost of living has always been high in San Francisco, there has been a recent surge in costs since 2024 because of the prevalence of wealth driven by the AI boom. This wealth is skewed by the ultra-high salaries at AI companies, making it less accessible for other tech professionals.
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According to Redfin’s report, the median home price in San Francisco surpassed $1.7 million in April, while the national median was approximately $450,000. CoStar data shows that the average monthly rent for apartments in San Francisco has reached $3,827, surpassing New York City in recent months to become the highest in the U.S.
A recent report from earlier this year revealed that rising costs have driven a rising number of Californians out of their state. According to FOX Business, facing sky-high housing prices and rising everyday expenses, residents are relocating to more affordable areas where the savings can be substantial. On average, movers end up in neighborhoods with monthly housing costs about $672 lower.