Marty Chinn
Member
Million Dollar Shack Documentary (23 min)
More info in the article here:
http://www.sfgate.com/aboutsfgate/a...hack-documentary-Bay-Area-housing-6582122.php
As someone who was born and raised in the area with a lot of family here as well as was in the market for a house for five years, a lot of this is something I've experienced or witnessed first hand. The housing market here is unlike anything in the rest of the country. It's just crazy and the madness doesn't look like it's going to end for awhile.
With the tech economy booming, home and rental prices in the Bay Area have soared in recent years, creating the country's hottest and most expensive housing market. In San Jose, for example, rents have gone up 26 percent in the past year, the highest increase in the U.S., according to Zumper.
This is all bad news for middle-class families. A household earning the region's median income $86,944 annually can afford only 12 percent of the homes for sale in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties, as of Sept. 2015, according to real estate website Trulia.
The message is communicated through a collection of personal anecdotes from Bay Area locals. There's the story of Deb Follingstad whose San Francisco landlord raised the rent on her home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights over 300 percent. And there's the tale of Maryann Creasy Rieger who was forced to commute some 180 miles a day between her home in Fairfield and her job at Yahoo on the Peninsula when CEO Marissa Mayer put an end to telecommuting. Maryann couldn't afford to move closer to her job.
A realtor featured in the film named Ken DeLeon doesn't offer much hope. "As crazy as these prices might seem, I think you're going to see them double in the next six to 10 years. The amazing part I don't think, it's going to end. I think the fundamental lack of supply and strong demand are going to drive this market forever."
Michelle realizes that she's not at the bottom of the economic totem pole. She worked as a social worker for some 10 years and had jobs in homeless shelters where she helped the most destitute members of the Bay Area. But she says the film isn't about exposing the region's poverty, and instead it's meant to start a discussion about the Bay Area middle class, a group of people that has traditionally been associated with comfort and optimism and is now stressed with economic insecurity.
The middle class has long been made up of many people who support and inspire a community, such as teachers, social workers and artists. Michelle fears that as these people can no longer afford to live in the Bay Area and leave, the region will lose its economic diversity and have a population mirroring a third world country.
"Any society with gross economic disparity isn't going to be a healthy place to live," Michelle said. "I drive a Toyota Corolla that's about eight years old, and I've been noticing recently that all the cars driving by me are Teslas and Mercedes. Something just isn't right."
More info in the article here:
http://www.sfgate.com/aboutsfgate/a...hack-documentary-Bay-Area-housing-6582122.php
As someone who was born and raised in the area with a lot of family here as well as was in the market for a house for five years, a lot of this is something I've experienced or witnessed first hand. The housing market here is unlike anything in the rest of the country. It's just crazy and the madness doesn't look like it's going to end for awhile.