S.F. metro area has lost 31,000 homeowning families in 10 years

It's no secret the San Francisco Bay Area can be a tough place to raise kids, and now a new report sheds light on those families sticking out.

Looking at data from the U.S. Census Bureau, RentCafe found the number of families with children who own their homes in the San Francisco metro area has dropped dramatically, while an increasing number are renting.

(Note: The metro area is defined as per the U.S. Census Bureau's as San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward.)

Researchers at the apartment search site found a 10% decrease in homeowner families, meaning 31,000 fewer households with children within the metro area. On the flip side, there was a 33% jump across the 10-year period in families renting, with an increase of 57,000 renter households.

San Francisco housing

What prevents families from buying in San Francisco? Anyone familiar with the San Francisco real estate market knows the answer to that question is sky-high prices.

"Single-family home prices increased here twice faster than rents between 2013 and 2018. In just five years, the median price of a single-family home soared by 80%, while the average rents swelled by 39%," RentCafe's data team said in a statement.

This trend among families isn't only happening in the San Francisco metro area. RentCafe found a jump in families across the nation, though in S.F. the numbers were especially dramatic. Across the U.S., the number of homeowning families with young kids has plummeted by almost 3.6 million in one decade (2006-2016), while the number living in rentals has swelled by 1.9 million over the same period of time.

"These 3.6 million fewer owner households are families who lost their homes in foreclosures or otherwise, they are young families who are unable to overcome the current financial barriers to become homeowners, and they are also homeowners whose children grew up and no longer fall into this category," writes RentCafe real estate expert Nadia Balint in the report. "Additionally, there are other contributing factors. The birthrate in the U.S. is declining, people are having children later in life, and the cost of raising a child has soared."

Tribune Content Agency
Housing markets Real estate Home prices Census Bureau California
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