A new affordable housing complex with on-site support services for families transitioning from homelessness opened Wednesday in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.

The City Gardens complex at 333 12th St. adds 200 units to the city's inventory of permanent supportive housing. This is housing that includes long-term rental assistance and supportive services ranging from education and job training to health care. The new complex will increase the number of such residential units for families in the city by more than 20 percent.

The building and its services will be funded with $100 million from the city's Our City, Our Home Fund, a tax on businesses that generate gross receipts of more than $50 million. It was approved by voters as Proposition C in 2018.

City Gardens apartment complex at 333 12th St. in San Francisco.

City of San Francisco

The project was supported by an additional $56.7 million from the state's Homekey program, which funds a variety of permanent housing options as part of addressing a housing crisis declared in 2019. The city funded with Homekey funds.

“The City's investments in shelter, housing and prevention across our system make a difference for people and our neighborhoods every day, and we will continue to work to bring stability and hope to those most in need,” said San Francisco Mayor, London Breed, in a statement statement.

San Francisco Administrator Matt Dorsey said the project will provide families exiting homelessness a place to call home.

“The opening of City Gardens provides safe housing for San Francisco families at a time when it is desperately needed. It’s more than just a building, it’s a sign of our commitment to helping our most vulnerable neighbors,” Dorsey said.

On-site social services, including case management and mental health counseling, are provided by the nonprofit organization Abode Services. Other building amenities include common areas, resident lounges on each floor, a rooftop terrace, offices and a bicycle repair shop.

“City Gardens is a wonderful family project that we are happy to be a part of,” said Louis Chicoine, CEO of Abode Services. “We are grateful to have been commissioned by the City and County of San Francisco to operate such a beautiful and meaningful building where many San Franciscans live today.”

Under Proposition C, the city imposed a tax on annual gross receipts of businesses over $50 million to fund supportive housing and other solutions to the city's homelessness crisis. Legal challenges delayed the implementation of funds for city projects until the 2020-21 fiscal year.

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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (BCN) – San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston introduced a resolution Tuesday calling on the state to turn the parking lot at a California Department of Motor Vehicles field office in the city into a 100 percent affordable housing site. “It’s a massive, state-owned property, with a mostly-unused parking lot,” Preston said.

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“If we’re serious about hitting our affordable housing goals, developing the DMV site for large-scale, permanently affordable housing is a no-brainer.” If passed, the resolution would urge state officials to request the DMV to turn their 98,061-square-foot parking lot at 1377 Fell St. into housing units.

Preston said the surface-level lot is one of the few potential sites for large-scale affordable housing in the heart of the city that would not require demolishing existing housing. Since it is owned by the state, it would be considerably cheaper to begin construction as the city would not have to buy the land.

The resolution was also introduced in light of the Board of Supervisors hearing an update on the draft 2022 Housing Element, quotas set by the state for local governments to boost affordable housing developments. In order to receive state funding, San Francisco must produce 82,069 new housing units by 2031, 57 percent of which must be accessible to low- and middle-income residents.

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“We welcome the ambitious affordable housing targets set in the Housing Element,” said Preston. “But the state needs to do more than just demand streamlining market rate production to get there.

We need partnership from the state to maximize every opportunity for affordable housing, and the DMV site is the perfect starting point.” Preston’s office also said the land could be a key spot to the city’s goal of preserving geographic equity while building affordable housing, given its easy access to other parts of the city with plenty of public transportation lines nearby.

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A private developer Build Inc. previously was awarded the DMV lot in 2008 to develop affordable housing, but the plans eventually fell through as they were “unable to make the project work,” according to Preston’s resolution.

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In San Francisco, two competing ballot measures, Propositions D and E, are promising to cut through red tape and get affordable housing built more quickly. They sound similar on the surface, but they have some key differences.

Proposition D

Proposition D comes from Mayor London Breed, and most of its funding comes from tech executives. The mayor says it could cut the time to build housing developments from six years to six months, for projects in which a significant portion of the units are marked as affordable, and the workers building them are all making a living wage. Prop D also raises the income threshold for some of those units, so more people can qualify to live in affordable housing.

Opponents of Prop D say they worry it’s not picky enough: that it could end up fast-tracking a lot of small studios for middle income, young, single people, in buildings that also have luxury condos.

Proposition E

Proposition E was written by the Board of Supervisors, and it would fast-track some housing developments, but only the ones that meet very stringent requirements.

Compared to Prop D, a higher percentage of units would have to be affordable to qualify for fast-tracking under Prop E, and a certain number of those units would need to be 2- and 3-bedroom floor plans suitable for larger families. The workers who build the housing would have to be in a union. Prop E would keep a low income threshold, so not as many middle income renters would qualify.

Prop E’s opponents say they worry the rules are too strict — and because projects under Prop E can still be held up for environmental review, they worry it leaves too much red tape, so the housing the city needs wouldn’t actually get built.

Who’s backing them?

So far, Prop D has raised more than $2 million, with endorsements including the Chronicle, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese American Democratic Club and State Senator Scott Wiener.

Prop E has raised more than $700,000, with endorsements from the San Francisco Democratic Party, a number of labor unions, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and Assemblymember Phil Ting.

Why are they competing?

San Francisco has a state mandate to build tens of thousands of new affordable housing units within the next decade. With that deadline looming, the supporters of these two measures have been locked in a fierce battle for months. Because they’re so similar, a court has ruled that only one of these propositions can win. If both get more than 50% of the vote, whichever one gets the most votes will become law.

The post San Francisco Propositions D and E on Reasonably priced Housing – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

In San Francisco, two competing ballot measures, Propositions D and E, are promising to cut through red tape and get affordable housing built more quickly. They sound similar on the surface, but they have some key differences.

Proposition D

Proposition D comes from Mayor London Breed, and most of its funding comes from tech executives. The mayor says it could cut the time to build housing developments from six years to six months, for projects in which a significant portion of the units are marked as affordable, and the workers building them are all making a living wage. Prop D also raises the income threshold for some of those units, so more people can qualify to live in affordable housing.

Opponents of Prop D say they worry it’s not picky enough: that it could end up fast-tracking a lot of small studios for middle income, young, single people, in buildings that also have luxury condos.

Proposition E

Proposition E was written by the Board of Supervisors, and it would fast-track some housing developments, but only the ones that meet very stringent requirements.

Compared to Prop D, a higher percentage of units would have to be affordable to qualify for fast-tracking under Prop E, and a certain number of those units would need to be 2- and 3-bedroom floor plans suitable for larger families. The workers who build the housing would have to be in a union. Prop E would keep a low income threshold, so not as many middle income renters would qualify.

Prop E’s opponents say they worry the rules are too strict — and because projects under Prop E can still be held up for environmental review, they worry it leaves too much red tape, so the housing the city needs wouldn’t actually get built.

Who’s backing them?

So far, Prop D has raised more than $2 million, with endorsements including the Chronicle, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese American Democratic Club and State Senator Scott Wiener.

Prop E has raised more than $700,000, with endorsements from the San Francisco Democratic Party, a number of labor unions, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and Assemblymember Phil Ting.

Why are they competing?

San Francisco has a state mandate to build tens of thousands of new affordable housing units within the next decade. With that deadline looming, the supporters of these two measures have been locked in a fierce battle for months. Because they’re so similar, a court has ruled that only one of these propositions can win. If both get more than 50% of the vote, whichever one gets the most votes will become law.

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Late yesterday, the Coalition on Homelessness and seven individual plaintiffs filed suit against the City and County of San Francisco and Mayor London Breed for their efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of brutal policing practices that violate the constitutional rights of unhoused San Franciscans. The plaintiffs are also seeking a preliminary injunction to stop these practices on an emergency basis. Plaintiffs are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, as well as the global law firm Latham & Watkins LLP.

For years, San Francisco has claimed that it is taking steps to address the City’s homelessness crisis. But in fact, the City is forcing unhoused people out of sight—destroying their survival belongings and citing and arresting them for sleeping in public when they have no shelter to go to. San Francisco has more laws penalizing homelessness than any other place in California, and possibly America. These regressive mass incarceration era policies only perpetuate San Francisco’s homelessness crisis and scapegoat unhoused people for the City’s egregious failure to support affordable housing for San Francisco residents.

San Francisco lacks—and has always lacked—adequate affordable housing and shelter for thousands of unhoused San Franciscans. San Francisco’s threats, citations, arrests, and removal of unhoused residents from public spaces therefore violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The City is also engaged in a practice of illegally seizing and destroying the personal belongings of unhoused residents in violation of the Fourth Amendment. These practices help San Francisco claim that it is solving the homelessness crisis—when it has actually just swept it under the rug.

San Francisco’s homelessness crisis is one of unaffordability. When longstanding residents can no longer afford to stay in their homes, they are forced out onto the street. San Francisco’s politicians have understood this for years, but they have failed to act. Instead, the City has consistently relied on tough-on-crime policies to respond to homelessness instead of addressing the root cause of the problem: the clear lack of permanent affordable housing.

This is immoral, cruel, costly, and ultimately counterproductive—not to mention unconstitutional. The City knows this because it constantly violates its own policies that purport to require a humane, services-first approach to the homelessness crisis. The reality is that unhoused San Franciscans wake up to find their survival belongings seized and destroyed as they face criminal penalties for sleeping outside even though the city has little to nothing to offer San Francisco’s unhoused residents in terms of shelter, housing, and services. This lawsuit combines massive amounts of public data with eyewitness accounts to expose the City’s unlawful conduct, which makes it almost impossible for the thousands of affected San Franciscans to exit homelessness.

Those experiencing homelessness in San Francisco are disproportionately people of color due to decades of discrimination in housing, education, healthcare and the criminal justice system. Today, for example, Black people comprise 6% of San Francisco’s general population but make up 37% of the City’s unhoused population. Black renters in San Francisco still face some of the worst housing discrimination anywhere in the country. That targeted exclusion has only exacerbated the homelessness crisis for people of color.

San Franciscans deserve real solutions to homelessness. That starts and ends with the City actually investing in affordable housing. This lawsuit seeks to hold the City to account for its unconstitutional attack on unhoused San Franciscans. The City cannot punish unhoused people for a housing crisis it created.

Client statements:

Plaintiff Nathaniel Vaughn, a life-long San Franciscan who recently became unhoused, reflects: “We do not deserve to be treated like criminals and to have our belongings thrown in the trash when we are at our most vulnerable.”

Plaintiff Toro Castaño notes the impact this has on unhoused people: “The City’s sweeps [are] a dehumanizing disruption to the small ounce of stability that I was trying to build for myself during one of the hardest times of my life.”

Plaintiff Sarah Cronk says the same: “We are just trying to scrape by and build as much of a life for ourselves as possible—with both dignity and safety. The City makes that impossible for us.”

Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness: “San Francisco’s homelessness crisis is its affordable housing crisis. Instead of investing in permanent affordable housing, the city has spent millions of dollars to rid our neighborhoods of visible signs of homelessness. Punitive approaches make homelessness worse, as it only makes it harder for people to access already limited services, find employment and secure stable housing.”

Attorney statements:

“The City is using unhoused residents as the scapegoats for a crisis of economic and racial justice that it helped to create. San Francisco should fight to end homelessness. But the only real solution to San Francisco’s homelessness crisis is housing. Instead of solving homelessness, the City has invested in carceral policies that make the crisis worse. That’s not only unconstitutional, it’s also just bad policy. We should expect better far better from our political leaders.” – Zal Shroff, Senior Staff Attorney, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the Bay Area

“Racism is embedded in the criminalization of homelessness in San Francisco as people of color are disproportionately targeted by anti-homeless ordinances. The current system is complaint-driven, allowing housed residents to dictate traumatizing enforcement against unhoused people who attempt to live in whiter, gentrifying neighborhoods. This suggests that the City is doing more to appear wealthy homeowners than it is to support the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable with real opportunities out of homelessness. Through the lawsuit, we aim to lay bare the City’s illusory shelter options and end the racist results that criminalization produces.” – John Do, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU of Northern California

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A fully affordable, eight-story housing development is one step closer to reality after building permits were approved Friday.

The project site at 730 Stanyan St. in Haight-Ashbury sits across from Golden Gate Park and was for many years the location of a gritty McDonald’s. The restaurant closed in 2018 after the city bought the property and was demolished two years later.

The long-awaited new development will feature 160 affordable homes upon completion—costing around $1 million each to build, with the full build cost listed as almost $166 million in planning documents.

The homes breakdown as follows: 128 units of affordable family housing, 20 for unhoused families, 30 units for transitional-age youth residents coming out of homelessness and two for on-site managers. The homes will be 43 one-bedrooms, 42 two-bedrooms, 35 studios and 40 three-bedrooms.

Renderings show how the eight-story project at 730 Stanyan St. would look from Haight St. near Amoeba Music. | Courtesy of OMA

The project approval will likely end the numerous battles over what to do with the site, which included bitter disputes over interim uses while a permanent housing plan could be agreed upon.

The project is a joint effort between the Chinatown Community Development Center and the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.

The rooftop will be covered in grass, and the fifth floor will work as a public space with views of Golden Gate Park. There will also be an urban farming terrace along Waller Street.

There will be a public plaza and community room on the ground floor, with two courtyards at the back, a cafe and a childcare facility.

The planning applications are still under review, according to the San Francisco Planning Department website. It must also be approved by the Board of Supervisors. Supervisors Gordon Mar and Dean Preston have publicly supported the project.

So see

It is hoped that construction will begin by 2024 and take 20 months. Families could be living on-site by 2026.

The entirely affordable housing project at 730 Stanyan St. will cost over $1 million per unit to build the 160 homes. | Courtesy of OMA

The update on 730 Stanyan comes as the total number of units in San Francisco’s housing pipeline hit a record high of over 80,000 in the first quarter of this year, according to Socketsite’s queries of SF Planning Department databases.

The state government is currently asking questions of SF’s home-building track record, launching an investigation into why it takes so long and demanding the city submit a plan to build 82,000 homes by 2030.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify the nature of the disputes over the site.

English

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English

San Francisco plans to build a towering number of new homes by 2031, though progress on that front is slow. Meanwhile, many of the city’s currently available homes—even its “affordable” ones—are out of reach for San Francisco’s vulnerable, low-income seniors.

The math is dire.

Most affordable units in San Francisco target their rents at between 30% and 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI), which means a one-bedroom apartment rents for between $799 and $1,333 a month. But the latest report from San Francisco’s Department of Disability and Aging Services shows over 75% of senior renters say their actual income levels are below 20% of the AMI.

In other words, many seniors are spending 75% or more of their monthly, fixed income on rent each month, and struggling to pay for other necessities like food and bills.

“There is definitely a housing crisis facing seniors and people with disabilities in the city,” said Jessica Lehman, the executive director of San Francisco Senior & Disability Action, a local nonprofit.

In 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a pilot program called Senior Operating Subsidies (SOS), which helps low-income seniors in certain housing units pay their rents. San Francisco Mayor London Breed agreed to provide $4 million to the SOS program in her latest budget proposal for the next two years.

Watch our video for a full look at the affordability crisis facing San Francisco’s low-income seniors.

English

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CHICO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Tri Counties Bank announced today awards totaling more than $2.1 million in grants to three organizations that qualified for the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco’s (FHLBank San Francisco) Affordable Housing Program General Fund (AHP).

AHP grants are awarded annually to FHLBank San Francisco members working in partnership with affordable housing developers and community organizations. Tri Counties Bank successfully nominated three organizations to be considered for the grants: Collier Avenue (Nice, Calif.), Piper Way Senior Housing (Redding, Calif.), and Siskiyou Crossroads (Yreka, Calif.).

AHP awards are highly competitive, ranked based on an extensive scoring process and granted to the highest-ranking projects. Basic eligibility requirements include projects demonstrating a need for subsidy and both developmental and operational feasibility. Further, rental housing projects must reserve at least 20% of units for households at or below 50% of the HUD area median income (AMI) while owner-occupied housing projects must serve households at or below 80% AMI.

“We congratulate Tri Counties Bank for submitting successful AHP applications for these very important affordable housing developments,” said Marietta Núñez, Senior Vice President and Community Investment Officer at FHLBank San Francisco. “We are proud to partner with members – like Tri Counties Bank – to support organizations on the ground who are working to address pressing affordable housing needs in local communities.”

These organizations will utilize the AHP grants to help create 149 units of affordable housing to those earning less than 60% AMI, including previously unhoused veterans, extremely low-income seniors, and low-income families and individuals.

“We are fortunate to have FHLBank San Francisco as a partner in our efforts to improve the availability of affordable housing across our communities. These grants, along with the dedicated efforts and partnership of local organizations, continue to make an important and positive difference in the lives of veterans and seniors,” said Rick Smith, President and CEO of Tri Counties Bank.

About Tri Counties Bank

Established in 1975, Tri Counties Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TriCo Bancshares (NASDAQ: TCBK) headquartered in Chico, California, with assets of over $10 billion and more than 45 years of financial stability. Tri Counties Bank provides a unique brand of Service With Solutions® for communities throughout California with a breadth of personal, small business and commercial banking services, plus an extensive branch network, more than 37,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide, and advanced online and mobile banking . Tri Counties Bank participates in the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund’s BankOn program that seeks to ensure that everyone has access to safe and affordable financial products and services. Visit TriCountiesBank.com to learn more. Member FDIC.

About FHL Bank San Francisco

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is a member-driven cooperative helping local lenders in Arizona, California, and Nevada build strong communities, create opportunity, and change lives for the better. The tools and resources we provide to our member financial institutions foster homeownership, expand access to quality housing, seed or sustain small businesses, and revitalize whole neighborhoods. Each year, the Bank contributes 10% of net income to the Affordable Housing Program, which provides grants to support the acquisition, construction, or preservation of housing affordable to low- to moderate-income families and individuals. Together with our members and other partners, we are making the communities we serve more vibrant and resilient.

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Builder Joey Toboni was swimming in the bay a few years ago when he looked back at Aquatic Park and took in the scene.

Among the walkers and joggers he noticed a class field trip led by a few teachers. There was a home health care aid pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair and a crew of National Park Service workers doing landscape work. He thought about the wide range of jobs that it takes to make a city function — and the wide gap between what those jobs pay and what it costs to live in the city.

“It dawned on me that none of these folks had a path to stay in San Francisco,” he said.

While that revelation was hardly groundbreaking in one of the world’s most expensive cities, for Toboni it became the seed of an idea he couldn’t shake.

“In that moment I realized there was nothing preventing me from being audacious and trying to tackle that problem,” he said. “I went home that night and started writing a business plan.”

What Toboni, 37, settled on was an idea maybe as challenging as it was simple: to build workforce housing for the middle class without accepting the sort of public subsidies — tax credits and affordable housing bonds — that finance most of the city’s affordable housing. In bypassing the red tape required for public subsidized housing, he figured he could be nimble and streamlined.

Toboni came up with a name — the Affordability Project — and scoured the city for a site on which to launch the concept. He enlisted fellow city native Tim Szarnicki — they played basketball at St. Ignatius College Preparatory — who had spent seven years in various leadership roles at Immaculate Conception Academy, a low-income Catholic school in the Mission District.

On Thursday the Planning Commission voted 6-1 to support the Affordability Project’s debut offering: a 100-unit rental project at 5250 Third St. in the Bayview District.

Tim Szarnicki (left) and Joey Toboni, who played basketball together in high school while growing up in San Francisco, have started a new affordable housing development company that does not take public money.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

On paper the project looks like a typical HOME-SF project — a density bonus program where developers get an extra two floors of heights in exchange for making 30% affordable to a range of low- and middle-income families. What makes the project unusual, however, is that the developer is also committed to restricting an additional 40% of the units to families earning between 80% and 140% of area median income, or $110,000 to $194,000 for a family of four. So the entire project will have 70% deed-restricted units.

The project received some opposition from building trades organizations that have clashed with the Toboni Group, a housing builder founded by Joey Toboni’s father. Toboni, who focuses on building single-family homes in his for-profit business, said that the Affordability Project is entirely separate from other family businesses. He said that he can’t commit to making the 5250 Third St. project an all-union job but that he hopes future developments will be.

In a city where an affordable unit can cost $750,000 to build, Toboni is hoping to build for less than $350,000 a unit. The cost savings come in part from the land as the Affordability Project was able to buy the parcel for $3 million, or $30,000 a door, about a 90% discount from what other land has sold for in San Francisco.

In addition, the group will save time and money by privately financing the development through philanthropy, which Toboni says will be far more efficient than going to the time-consuming and competitive process of competing for tax credits and affordable housing bonds.

“The point of this organization is to get workforce folks into housing now,” said Toboni. “We believe a private organization can be much more efficient than the government is.”

A notice for a past public hearing is seen on a fence on a site on Third Street that Tim Szarnicki and Joey Toboni are hoping to develop into affordable housing.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

The project will be a benefit to Bayview businesses, according to Earl Shaddix, executive director of the Economic Development on Third, who lives in a below-market-rate unit at 4800 Third St. In the past 10 years only 20 units have been added along the heart of the Bayview’s commercial district, he said.

While the neighborhood’s business district is doing better — vacancy rate has dropped from 30% to 10% in the past few years — additional foot traffic is needed to make sure the small businesses survive. New businesses opening recently include Feline Finesse Dance Co., Gratta Wines and U3Fit fitness gym — with several more expected to open in the coming months.

“There is a tremendous desire for more foot traffic and more lights on the corridor at nighttime,” Shaddix said. “We desperately need that, and the way we do it is through increased density. We know housing will mean more people on the corridor.”

Toboni said the plan is to build 2,000 workforce housing units in the next 10 years.

“Tim and I both realize that goal is extremely ambitious,” he said. “But if you don’t set a high goal, there is nothing to reach for.”

Affordability Project has raised much of the money and has a commitment from a bank to provide a construction loan, although the group must raise another $6 million before breaking ground. The hope is to be under construction next spring.

Toboni said it’s too early to say what the exact income eligibility will be of the additional 40 affordable units, but that the rents would be set to ensure that essential workers like teachers and police officers qualify. Any profits from the project will be reinvested into the next affordable development.

A rendering of the proposed affordable housing project at 5250 3rd St., which would be built with zero public money.

Lea Suzuki/The Affordability Project

Former Supervisor Katy Tang, who drafted San Francisco’s HOME-SF density bonus legislation, is on the board of the Affordability Project.

As a veteran of the city’s development battles, Tang said she realizes that building housing in San Francisco requires patience, money and political finesse. While the Affordability Project has a tough road, it’s worth trying, Tang said.

“If we don’t try it, it absolutely won’t work,” she said. “The largest group of families leaving the city are middle-income families.”

Tang said she has talked to many Bayview businesses.

“What they keep asking is how can we get more people to visit the small businesses on Third Street? There is not currently a level of foot traffic to sustain local business.”

Toboni said he continues to be motivated by that realization that he had while floating in the bay — that the families he grew up alongside in the Richmond District have no place in the current city.

“My best friend’s parents growing up were an iron worker and a teacher,” he said. “There is a zero percent chance that people working those professions could afford the Richmond today.”

JK Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen

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Sun-soaked San Diego is home to the least affordable metro housing market in America.

The city surpassed its northern California neighbor, the notoriously pricey San Francisco, earlier this year, according to a report by real-estate analytics company OJO Labs.

“Pricing is out of control,” Kathy McSherry, a Compass real estate agent in San Diego, told The Post Saturday, a day after she sold a 1,400-square-foot home for $1 million, a property originally listed at $900,000. She currently has a $1.65 million offer pending on a $1.4 million listing for a 1,500-square-foot property.

“We’re getting multiple offers on everything,” McSherry said, including more than 20 bids on a one-bedroom condo in central San Diego.

OJO’s affordability metric compares median home prices to local incomes. The median home sold price in San Diego climbed 14.3 percent in January, to $764,000, bringing the city’s “unaffordability” score to 8.1 — the ratio of home-sold price to median household income, OJO reports.

Average home prices are still higher in San Francisco, but due to median household incomes, San Diego is considered less affordable. georgeclerk

Median home prices remain higher in San Francisco than San Diego, but homes there are considered more affordable because of higher average incomes.

Home prices declined 4.2% in San Francisco over the past year, the steepest drop of any of the 50 metro markets measured by OJO Labs. The only other area in the red was Fort Myers, Fla.where home prices declined 0.2%.

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