Would it really be worth it to pay 10x as much for an apartment in S.F. than somewhere 30 miles N of Detroit? You’d really have to want to live there and that seems kinda irrational to me.
One word: jobs. And a few words: high-paying jobs.
San Francisco has always had a lot of well-paying jobs in the financial and medical sectors. Now add to that the tech sector that exploded with jobs over the last 35 years, as well as the motion-picture industry growth (lots of film studios moved north from L.A. to S.F., explaining why S.F. figures in a lot of movies). My oldest daughter recently moved out of an apartment in a tony area of S.F. a couple years ago, her $1700 rent was hiked to $3500 for the next tenant. She was pulling down $160K so the rent is affordable. Same goes for the influx of tech workers who see no problem buying $1M homes, they're pulling down high salaries. Mediterranean weather with zero snow, lots of recreational areas and thousands of restaurants, museums, sports venues, fresh produce and seafood locally etc. Can you say the same for Detroit?