YIMBYs go house hunting in residential neighborhoods

WIENERVILLES

by George Wooding

• • • • • • April 2025 • • • • • •

Owning a home is still the American Dream. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for ownership. That is not going away in San Francisco—but not everyone can afford to purchase a home.

“Buying a home is a powerful decision, and it remains at the heart of the American Dream. Unlike renting, owning a home means more than just having a place to live – it offers a sense of belonging, stability, and freedom.”
According to Nicole Bachaud, Senior Economist at Zillow:
Californians used to believe that if they could not afford a home in one area, they could live in a less expensive area. Today’s home-owning San Franciscans worked hard, saved their money, lived frugal lives, and only then purchased houses commensurate with their income level. We cannot all live in Pacific Heights.

Current San Francisco homeowners need to scrape the smell of State and City housing entitlements from the bottom of their shoes. State Senator Scott Wiener, developers, and YIMBY’s (Yes In My Back Yard) — mostly millennials — are on the verge of destroying the character of neighborhoods throughout San Francisco. They aim to make residential units smaller, denser, and affordable and place them throughout neighborhoods.

As soon as home interest rates become reasonable for developers to make a profit, they will begin building four-to-six residential units.

The tradeoff? They will add large tracts of residential housing to existing residential neighborhoods. Much of this new housing will be deemed “affordable housing.” These new homes are called “Wienervilles” in honor of Scott Wiener’s horrible housing legislation. With developer money backing, and an army of low-income millennials, Wiener became former San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s housing Rasputin.

Wiener has done his legislative damage

• SB79 March 5, 2025, the Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act

• SB-312 California Environmental Quality Act: University Housing Development Projects: Exemption (2023-2024)

• SB-937 Development Projects: Fees and Charges (2023-2024)

• SB-951 California Coastal Act of 1976: Coastal Zone: Coastal Development (2023-2024)

• SB-937 Development Projects: Fees and Charges (2023-2024) — regulates fees for development projects

• SB 4 (Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act).

• He also worked with former Mayor London Breed to develop San Francisco’s housing legislation. All of this legislation is designed to break up residential housing

Millennials v. Gen-X

What’s so different between millennials and Gen-Xs? For starters, Gen-Xs—born between 1965 and 1980 — came in on the cusp of cell phones, the Internet, and social media, while most millennials — born between 1981 and 1997 — grew up when these things were a regular part of daily life.
Millennials are often called “the generation of entitlement.” They are the
richest generation ever to be born in the United States. Many have been
spoiled and pampered by their parents. They are the generation of
participation trophies and instant gratification. Many graduated with useless college degrees that

their parents paid for, and they are having trouble finding meaningful, well-paying jobs. Many are still living at home, supported by their parents. Many appear to have no interest in keeping a full-time job. Despite these shortcomings, they still want to own residential units in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Yimby mission statement:
“We (mostly entitled millennials) are a group of volunteer housing advocates in San Francisco fighting to end the housing shortage in our community. We are frustrated by tenant displacement, segregation, high rents and home prices, and long commutes that result from a lack of housing close to jobs, schools, and other community resources. We believe we can fix these problems and create a community with abundant, affordable homes for everyone.”

It is sad to watch how their own Dogma has blinded the YIMBYs—the exuberance of inexperience and youth. San Francisco developers have played the affordable housing groups like a violin.

The Affordable Housing Scheme

In San Francisco, developers can potentially avoid building affordable housing by choosing to pay an Affordable Housing Fee instead of dedicating a portion of their project to affordable units, or by focusing on projects with fewer than 10 units, which are exempt from the Inclusionary Housing Program.

San Francisco’s Inclusionary Housing Program (Section 415 of the SF Planning Code) requires developers of market-rate residential projects with 10 or more units to contribute to the City’s affordable housing supply.

Thus, the developer makes a much greater profit by selling units that were supposed to be “affordable” as market-rate units. The developer’s money goes to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD). This money disappears at the MOHCD. It is not tracked. In this way, San Francisco actually makes money by getting RID of affordable housing. The City claims that this money subsidizes the construction of other affordable housing projects. Prove it.

It is not a crime to be too poor to own a house in San Francisco. 65% of SF households rent their homes. The real crime is to use entitlement legislation to push existing homeowners out of their neighborhoods to make room for developer profits and “affordable Wienerville housing.”

California calls the Westside of San Francisco the wealthy/rich part of town due to the increasing value of homes. A senior citizen living in a three-bedroom house worth $1.8 million and receiving social security checks is now considered rich. A millennial making $140,000 per year is considered poor and qualifies for affordable housing.

Affordable Pipeline

There will be many affordable houses on the Westside of San Francisco.

• Plans for the Balboa Reservoir development include 50% affordable housing, with approximately 550 affordable units, including 150 affordable educator units, out of 1,100 new housing units.

• The Stonestown redevelopment project, a mega-project at the Stonestown Galleria, will include approximately 700 affordable housing units, which is 20% of the total 3,500 housing units planned.

• As part of its Parnassus Heights campus expansion, UCSF plans to build 1,263 new housing units, with 40% designated as “UC Affordable Units” for employees and trainees earning 60 to 120% of San Francisco’s Area Median Income (AMI) by 2050.

• The 3333 California Street mixed-use development in San Francisco, which is replacing the former UCSF Laurel Heights campus, is planned to include 752 new apartments, with a quarter of those units designated as affordable housing.

• Parkmerced, a 3,165-unit property, has just been placed into receivership after a $1.5B loan default. Parkmerced was going to add another 2,514 residential units; 15% of the proposed 2,514 units (377) were planned to be affordable housing, with the project sponsor anticipating constructing one-third of these units on-site and paying in-lieu fees for the remaining inclusionary housing requirement. This means that Parkmerced planned to reduce affordable housing by paying off the MOHCD.

• The City will rezone Neighborhood Commercial Districts (NCDs) throughout San Francisco to build a minimum of 46’ to 86’ high — another tremendous source of affordable housing. Future housing units will also be planned from 140’ to 240’ high.

If people want to purchase a house in San Francisco, Here is what you need to know:

• First, know what you want. the neighborhood that you want to (realistically) live in, and how much money you can spend.

• Try and prequalify for a mortgage loan

• According to Zillow, The average San Francisco home value is $1,272,219. Affordable Housing may cost 30% less depending on size and location.

Debt-to-income ratio (DTI)

• You will need to place a 20% downpayment to purchase a house

• The current interest rate is 6.8%

• The property seller will pay the .05% commission to the real estate agents

• The average homeowner insurance per month is $112.00 and quickly rising. Some homes are losing their insurance. A mortgage company will back out (renege) on a home loan that is not insured.

• Annual property taxes are increased every year by 1 – 2% per year

• Recology bills will be paying $65.25 per month for a three-bin pick-up in 2027.

• Beware of purchasing condominiums, as their fees can be astronomical.

• The average PG&E bill for San Francisco is $299 per month. The rates are increasing by 1.5%. This is the sixth rate-hike in six months. By the end of 2024, PG&E customers were already paying an average of $60 more monthly on their electricity bills compared to the previous year. PG&E rates are out of control.

• The current average monthly water and sewer bill is $142 for single-family homes. SFPUC projects that will more than triple in 20 years to $436, which is also right at the limit of what it determined is affordable.

• Closing costs: Escrow, title, deed, loan tie-in fee, title insurance. Notary snap documents: $1,800.00
According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary in San Francisco is around $95,265 annually, with a monthly pay of $7,938.

Good luck paying for your residential unit.

George Wooding, Neighborhood Activist Emeritus

April 2025