1) Fairly weak job base. Mostly blue-collar service and construction jobs means that people don’t get to save a lot and cannot buy homes in normal conditions–>limited local buyers
2) Lots of speculative investment means many empty homes in the area. It takes 2 months to lease up a house now with incentives
2) Rental home prices don’t vary as greatly with SF as you would think. A crappy small 3bd rents for marginally less than a new 4bd in a better neighborhood.
so what for your friend
1) don’t buy period
2) shop around for a rental home. You will be able to get more than you would expect.
