So you have both untenable traffic and high humidity! SF certainly looks better now that the ugly PAT BROWN double decked freeway to nowhere on the Embarcadero is gone (one of the good things that the Loma Prieta Earthquake did), but it did serve a useful purpose in feeding commute traffic onto the Bay Bridge. The problem SF has is that it has a booming economy, thanks in great measure to the Peninsula and Silicon Valley megabusinesses. Companies like FB and Google are now providing executive bus transportation to and from SF for their “wealthy” employees who want to live there. Today a Studio Apartment in SF goes for $4,000 per month and they are building them as fast as they can. All of Third Street and Potereo Hill have been completely “rebuilt” and all of the ugly publc housing (together with it's “residents”) is gone! In the 70’s I worked on Jerrold Avenue (near the Produce Market). We found dead bodies in our alley. Now all of that is gone, and with Candlestick Park razed, it's only a matter of time for that property to be redeveloped along with the area between it and India Basin. All that said, I wouldn't live there if you paid me. SF’s “beauty” is now only skin deep!
Yow.
I pay less than that on the mortgages for both of my houses. I have a nice house near the Chesapeake, a short distance outside of our historic downtown, with a large deck. My other house, which is rented out now, is in a lovely small town a short distance from national battlefields. It's a great area for history and Civil War buffs.
I have never understood why someone would pay top dollar to live in an apartment the size of my living room, just to live in a city. Incredible.