Yes, very low turnover I’m sure.
Uh, hello? My family owns an building in the Fab 7x7 remember??? Yes, all are millennial/Gen X renters and 2 out of 3 flats are essentially market or semi market. We like the kiddies so we don’t raise the rents that often at all. The last unit is below market and I hope the tenant doesn’t get too comfortable and thinking huge buy-out or forever low rent cuz me and the wife are moving in one day. Ellis Act the building if necessary to take the whole building offline.
We turned the smallest of the 3 flats fairly recently if you read my posts. A lot of young people earning GOBS of money applied. A couple combined made what was it 350-400K a year. Husband worked for one of our fav whipping boy companies.
Generally correct, people do stay forever but as we bet correctly usually with young folks they do eventually get married, change jobs, etc. No chance with an old person. Oops, can’t say that huh? You didn’t hear me say that…
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As soon as they have kids they will plan to leave SF…when the kid hits five they will move to the burbs
Obviously I am biased, but growing up in the city is the best I think. Why? Well, you learn to deal with people, and thus gain some street smarts (hopefully) and you get to enjoy the multi fabric that is the Fab 7x7. Come on, what is there in suburbia that would honestly help a young person develop and grow? There is nothing out there. And I repeat, the school quality difference theory is overblown. Come on, our own Manch moved up here to have his kids attend school here, in the Fab 7x7. What more of a ringing endorsement does one need, right? And let’s be honest, I have nephews and nieces and of course my friends have kids. Guess which kids did better? It varied, as it should be. The city kids weren’t better or worse than their peers from the burbs. The best one was a kid from the city who ended up at UCSF Med School. Not bad, not bad at all…
SF has been chasing out families for years…Now 85% of young people are single and there are plenty of old peter pans…Nobody wants to grow up in SF, flower children forever…Only immigrants have kids…The liberals, gays and homeless supporters have no interest in supporting middle class families. That migration has been unabated since the 60s
After 19 years, this 4 unit building was sold for a double. SF appreciation since 1998 is very disappointing, if this Richmond building is representative.
If you buy a property today and its value doubles after 20 years, are you going to be happy?
Agreed, doesn’t seem to have done very well. Maybe, a byproduct of rent control and poor management? Who knows what happened in that 20 years. But I will offer this as a counterpoint since this was true of my family. My grandparents/parents managed to scrape enough to buy a multi unit building, similar to something like this, 50+ years ago before I was born in fringe Chinatown. We lived in one unit and rented the rest out. So in addition to providing a roof over your family’s head you have supplemental income and income for your future generations. Not to mention some tax breaks technically along the way too. So, that was how our family and I suppose many other families at least, built their family’s overall wealth base if you will. You have to start somewhere. All my siblings are college educated and all are productive, working citizens. No one is remotely hurting financially. We all own homes and some of us own multiple investment properties. Big Bro is leading the race and is conservatively worth probably 20M now. So, from poor immigrant beginnings of working on the docks/piers and shrimp boats to owning property in the Fab 7x7 and other nice places in the peninsula, we as a family, have come a long way and partly because of our building if you really think about it. We didn’t waste money on paying rent forever and the supplemental income from the other units’ rents kept the ship afloat. We still own that family building. Yeah, bought in early 60s for what, $35K or so and now worth in today’s dollars, oh say 2.5M or so. One can argue, that is not a lot, over 50 years and adjusted for inflation. Well, that would be a simplistic view of things. Yeah, but look at the spin-off impact that this building had on the family and its future generations and one can say it was priceless.
The value of my SF home doubled after 14 years.
The value of my brother’s SF home quadrupled after 20 years.
And that’s just primary residence. For income property you can also add rent into the equation.
Timing is probably also relevant. My wifey’s multifam bought in 2012 in the south bay has doubled to today (assuming we sell). The multifam that I bought in sac in 2012 and exited this year, almost doubled
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Absolutely!!! Timing is everything. Now, in your case, was the Sac property smaller or at a lower price point than the south bay one? Obviously easier to double up if cheap. South Bay doubling up sounds way more impressive considering the valuations there…
Sac was same size, but much cheaper. after all it’s Sac 
I briefly got involved in a conversation with a new hire who moved from a different state and was looking for a place to rent. What i could get from it is that its hard for someone to get a decent single person accommodation in SV.
I am sure building dorm type suites with in-suite bathrooms would make a great business case in SV.
Sure, if one can get pass NIMBY city officials and neighbors…
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They are called long term stay hotels
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If I were that person I’d get an RV. Meals and shower are taken care of at work anyway so you can save money by sleeping in an RV. Just suck it up for a few years and you have your down payment ready.
Saw a line of RVs parked along Bordeaux in Sunnyvale the other day. Google Cloud types? (near by companies are Google Cloud, Microsoft, Baidu, Nissan, etc) btw during the dot com days it was pretty common to hear stories / know of people who literally lived in the offices (they would sleep in meeting rooms, etc) so that they could save on rent. History repeats itself 
There’s more personal space in an RV 
Not every company provides meals and showers. Actually a large number of them dont provide these facilities.
Long term hotel stays are expensive. Plus little socialization.
Just create a college dorm type buildings. Small suites with attached bathrooms. Common areas for cooking and eating. Free wi-fi…
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The local gym is your friend. If you are determined nothing is impossible.