Cost of Living in San Francisco

San Francisco is old and filthy. The traffic is horrible, the people are rude and there are many people with Hiv/aids. If you are young and want to work to save your pennies, then you will likely be living in a closet paying $2,000/month to live like a rat. The Rich are the only ones making money off of the poor hardworking immigrants. The only way to survive is to work at least 80 hours per week. The only reason to be in San Francisco is to be around the Homosexual population. If I could choose anyplace to live in, it would be San Diego.

Offficial minimum wage in San Francisco 2019, is 15$/hr.

Iam a owner of a house in Traben-Trarbach 5000 Inhabitants in the west of Germany near the river Mosel.
In my house there are 3 apartments,
two with 60 square meter and 4 rooms one with two rooms and 40 squaremeter.
The two apartment with 60 sq.m are for 400 Euro rent.
The 40 sq.m room is for 400 Euro rent.

Hello
SF is expensive but wait till you get to europe. Coming from Lille, a town in France, I have to say that SF is paradise in terms of space, quality of life AND PRICE!

SF is expensive but not as expensive as Paris. I have been searching for rooms in SF and I found through a site called Zoopla and Craigslist a couple of apartments that are around $2,200 all inclusive of utilities. Plus has amenities.

All SF apartments for around $2,200 have amenities meaning, gym, pool and rooftop. Yes it is pricey, especially since I was paying 800 Euros in Lille. But for all that I get, it is extremely OK!

And of course, if you want to have a CAR, then yes, the cost of living will go up! But use the bus! Americans are not used to using public transport for some reason.

Hi

I'm from SF area, these stats look about right. I've lived here my whole life and I'll agree the cost of living here is wayyy too expensive, unless you're in low income housing or some kind of government aid you'll be living in the out skirts of the city or inner city area. Living anywhere near or in the bay you will be paying at least 2200+ for a good 1bdrm apartment in the nicer safer areas. It's not impossible to find something cheaper but it is hard. Especially if you don't have the right connections. Right now I am living near the lake merrit area and I have an amazing 1 bdrm in Oakland really popular and diverse place. Lots of restaurants and bars, night life is ok I guess. But I am paying 1870 for a tiny 1 bdrm just imagine living in the city!

I live in the "Tendernob" and my studio (1/2 bedroom because I converted the closet into a bedroom) is $1,636 w/ rent control. Someone here brought up that the 'average wage' was over $4k/month. I don't think that's 'average.' There's great wealth disparity here which means, among other things, that there are a disproportionately large (when compared to the rest of the US) population of VERY highly paid tech & finance industry workers. That said, there are still fewer of them than service workers. Very poorly paid service/retail workers are LEGION here. So, with both compensation ends being skewed ~ either by the inflated wage or by the inflated number of people ~ there's just no real, accurate "averages." There are two extremes and not much in the middle. The problem is that although there's no average wage, there are averages for rent, food, utilities, etc. Those averages are skewed WAY up so that the very highly paid (relative) minority at the top can afford a 1BR apt, eating out at restaurants, going to movies, etc. Most people can't, though.

Most of the people I know who got here within the past 5 years (within the housing price bubble) live 3~5 in a house, 40 minutes outside of downtown by bus in the Richmond. They eat beans-&-rice and scrape their change together to go out for 1 beer a week with friends. Virtually no one works as few as 8 hours/day.

If you want to move here, decide what quality-of-life level you can sustain. Then figure out from data like on this site how much that would cost you. Do you or can you make an income that will pay for that? Will you be able to save/invest at all? How long can you sustain living like that? Bottom line: I wouldn't 'casually' move to SF. You're likely to loose your shirt and limp home to your parents if you don't think hard and plan carefully.

It's Expensive.
I rent a bunk bed (the top half at that :-() in a warehouse for $1399. !!
Then food, etc also costs more.
I pay $300 for parking in a garage where I can take my ar out 6 times/month (I never take it out.) I walk generally. Or take the bus ($225 each way), or Uber ride share: $4.75-$16 depending on how far an what time of day).
Generally parking garages with in/out privileges are $450 or more. Daily parking is $25-$35 / day.
Best of Luck.
It's a great place to live, but difficult if you're on a budges, or have little free time to take care of things.
The best deal is in the Sunset district. There is street parking, rents are lower, and you'll have more Space for the price you pay. But the bus could take 40min or more to get you downtown. If you work 12hr/day, you're not gonna want another 1.5hr commute time. It's also easier to get to a grocery store, or do other shopping from the sunset district. Parking is a nightmare downtown; both traffic and parking is more normalized in the Sunset, but still no guarantees.