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Comment by npiazza83 | Hacker News Reader

Most of America isn't a great place for those with children but not wealth!

I think what makes San Francisco a target is that it isn't a great place for those without children who would be classified as wealthy in any other part of the country.

You can probably find a path to home ownership in a safe neighborhood with decent services in any city in the country if you are in the upper quartile of incomes for that area.

The housing prices in San Francisco are such that most incomes even in the upper quartile would take a decade to save for a downpayment. You need two incomes (Two working parents) in the upper quartile of incomes in the area to get you to home ownership in a good neighborhood.

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> Most of America isn't a great place for those with children but not wealth!

I don't follow.

As you said yourself, in most places in the U.S., a middle or upper-middle class family can afford to live in a home big enough for a family (which by global standards, is likely big enough for two or three families). And the home's in a safe neighborhood. What prevents this scenario from being great?

I’m with you. Obviously wealthy children will have more advantages no matter what, but I personally grew up with one working parent (dad was a teacher with a summer job and some small side jobs) who was able to support me, my mother, and 5 siblings in a smallish US town. I was able to receive a good public education, and we had all the necessities (if nothing else – no nice vacations or fashionable clothes). It was a safe town… sports programs, extra-curriculars. Cheap homes. That one working parent was able to buy a 4-bed home, renovate the attic, add an enclosed porch, re-side and re-shingle, and pay off the mortgage while raising this family. This scenario would be entirely impossible in San Francisco and even most of the Peninsula.

Definitely agree that other places are more affordable, especially if you bring a nest egg from working a few years in an expensive Metro area like NYC, SF etc.

But the 80s and 90s -- through the first Dotcom crash -- were also a different era. The Economist considered the US the #1 country to be born in 1988, and only #16 in 2013. This is reflected in the fall in the number of good middle-class jobs, housing affordability, health care costs, traffic and infrastructure, and overall declining quality of factors.

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