
SF Is the Third Least Affordable Major City in the World - DanielRibeiro
http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/sf-the-third-least-affordable-major-city-the-entire-world
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usaar333
Articles need to link to the actual survey:
[http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf](http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf)

Yes, San Francisco is unaffordable, but 3rd least is an exaggeration:

-This does not include the entire world, just cities in English-speaking (+Japan for some reason) developed countries with metro areas exceeding 1M people.

-By most measures ([http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/07/china-ha...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/07/china-has-the-most-unaffordable-housing-in-the-world/277428/)), Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing have worse housing affordability than the English-speaking #1 of Hong Kong.

-This is using the SF-Oakland MSA ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco%E2%80%93Oakland%E...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco%E2%80%93Oakland%E2%80%93Fremont,_CA_Metropolitan_Statistical_Area)), which is far broader than San Francisco itself.

-Comparing different MSAs is not exactly apples and apples. The New York MSA extends to Pike County, 80 miles from Manhattan. Under this definition, you could start including lower-cost Sacramento and Stockton with San Francisco.

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seanmcdirmid
I was just going to comment...Beijing is way more unaffordable than Hong Kong
when median income is considered! Also, both Vancouver and Hong Kong (and to a
much less extent, SF) are being invaded by mainland speculators, so the
problems are all quite related.

Rents are much more reasonable though, so the term "affordable" based on
property speculation is quite weird (though HK is quite expensive in rent
also).

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chaostheory
> both Vancouver and Hong Kong (and to a much less extent, SF) are being
> invaded by mainland speculators

I always thought it was Chinese government officials looking to invest their
embezzled funds or bribe money. Paying in cash looks sketchy to me.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
The banking system isn't that developed and people are used to paying in cash,
even if you buy a house here your downpayment is likely to be 50% of the
house's value.

There is a lot of gray money flowing into foreign, some of it actually
corrupt, but much of it just very gray. Some of it is real money, with no
other way to invest RMB domestically (domestic real estate is a basket case,
stock market...ha!), many just look abroad for investment opportunities and
aren't too creative about it.

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anxrn
"The researchers used a metric called a median multiple, which compares the
average home price to the median yearly income for an urban region"

Wouldn't it be better to compare medians? (Median home price to median yearly
income). It seems to me that you want to be robust to outliers in home price
(Danielle Steele's mansion) in the same way that you're already robust to
outliers in income (Mark Zuckerberg's paycheck)

~~~
jdale27
From the original report
([http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf](http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf)), it
appears that they do actually compare medians as you suggest: "The Demographia
International Housing Affordability Survey uses the 'Median Multiple' (median
house price divided by gross annual median household income) to assess housing
affordability" (p. 7).

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api
Booming economy, affordable housing, development restrictions and NIMBYism:
pick two.

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theandrewbailey
I'm surprised the Pittsburgh scored so well. I have a friend who is buying
houses to flip to rentals, and he says that houses stay on the market for less
than a week. He suspects it's because of people moving into the area due to
the popularity of Marcellus shale fracking. I expect that both of those would
push prices up. Every week, I see tons of nice subdivisions being built like
there's no tomorrow.

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Xcelerate
What's interesting to note in the survey is that Atlanta is the 5th _most_
affordable city in the world. I wonder why that is?

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muzz
Something to do with Georgia's extremely high poverty rate perhaps?

[http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/11/08/georgia-p...](http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/11/08/georgia-
poverty-levels-among-worst-in.html)

~~~
seanmcdirmid
To be fair, it was weighted to median income. So if everyone was poor, that
would drive the "affordable" price way down.

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cweagans
In other news, the sky is blue. News at six. Why is anyone surprised by this?

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kostyk
I think they missed number 4 there? Or i missed it?

~~~
Untit1ed
Sydney, followed by Melbourne:
[http://www.cnbc.com/id/101349774](http://www.cnbc.com/id/101349774)

Finally Australia finishes outside the top 3 in something and I can be happy
about it!

EDIT: Although that article says San Jose is the 5th even though the source
disagrees. Confusing.

~~~
usaar333
The actual source
([http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf](http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf))
gives San Jose 5th. Melbourne takes 6th, with Auckland at 7th.

