Of late, leaders in the domain of tech has not been very positive about San Francisco real estate market. Top names from the industry including the likes of Elon Musk slammed the city’s covid regulation policies that hampered proper functioning of their businesses as well as plants located in the city.
In fact, over the past few months, a steady stream of companies, investors, and even executives have been leaving San Francisco and moving sought-after places like Austin and Miami. Many have even lobbed parting shots on their way towards other shores.
San Francisco Real Estate Scenarios
According to investor Joe Lonsdale, several reasons can be attributed to such a transition, which in turn has started affecting the real estate scenario of San Francisco. According to Lonsdale, some of the major reasons include open-air drug users, San Francisco’s population of transients, the state’s practice of overlooking regular blackouts during windy weather in order to prevent lay down power lines from starting fires, and restraining zoning laws that make new residential properties or housing expensive and of course difficult to construct for millions living in the city. Renowned venture capitalists also condemned the city as “massively improperly run and managed.”
Palantir’s CEO, Alex Carp moved the company headquarters to Colorado during the summer after a fall out with Silicon Valley’s morals and rhetoric. On the other hand, security software Tanium also moved base to Seattle after citing and criticizing “real governance issue.”
Residential and Commercial Real Estate Prices
Real estate prices have dipped in the city like never before. Both residential and commercial real estate prices have been badly affected; inventory is rising after years of severe scarcity and in spite of the government’s imposition of lockdown rules, the spreading of the covid-19 virus has not stopped. And new cases are surging almost every day with hospital beds overwhelming.
However, some experts have a different opinion. Despite everything, top tech companies still have a presence in the city including the likes of Tesla, Facebook, and Google’s parent company Alphabet. Hence, it is advised by many not to give up all hopes on San Francisco real estate market so soon and that too completely.
