[charonn0]

How are current residents being priced out? If they rent, then rent increases are limited by law and no-fault evictions are nearly impossible to get honestly. If they own, the no one can force them to move short of the city invoking eminent domain.

[tomsaffell]

I agree with your sentiment, but just for completeness, there are a few ways existing residents get 'priced out':

1) the 'assessed value' of owned property (used to calculate property tax) can be raised ~2% per year[a], so over a decade a home owner's property tax may increase ~22%

2) Not all of SF has rent control. Any building constructed after 1979 does not. [b]

3) Not all renters are savvy enough to not get kicked out by greedy landlords, despite the laws protecting them. Apparently landlords often use 'renovations' as a way to do that. Just last week I overheard a conversation in Trader Joes about someone who had fallen pray to that [c]

TLDR: money is like water - it will find its way through the cracks to the place it wants to be (the pockets of those with capital).

a: http://www.sftreasurer.org/index.aspx?page=66 b: http://www.sftu.org/rentcontrol.html c: time travel to TJ's on 8th, ~8.30am last Sunday.

[ryguytilidie]

"then rent increases are limited by law"

In certain cases, yes, but personally I lived in SOMA in an apartment for 2 years and my rent was going to go from 2k to 3k because Google had asked the building if they could rent some of the units. So I mean, maybe it was illegal and I don't know about it, but I can certainly say I don't live in San Francisco anymore because I was priced out by new incoming tech employees.

[redthrowaway]

I'm assuming you made a thinko there; as written your comment says you were forced to move because living got too inexpensive.

[ryguytilidie]

haha good call, thanks for noticing.

[surrealize]

One of the examples in the article is a couple who have lived in san francisco for a long time, and feel the need to move to a bigger place because they now have kids. But they keep getting outbid on houses.

[unreal37]

Its only true if you never move. Or if you were renting but now are ready to buy.

[gwern]

Property taxes being set on increasing market values of properties?