Home owners are expecting to get their ROI on appreciation, so the rental deals are just too good.
The cost of owning the house is really just interest + hoa + taxes + upkeep. You'll get your principal back out when you sell.
Over a long enough time period, the yearly home ownership costs will be less than renting.
Owning even in SF can still be a better financial decision than renting. There's a lot of tax advantages that you get by owning a home as well.
E.g take this place: https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/201-Sansome-St-94104.... Costs about 5.4k/month. Removing principal & tax rebate its likely costing you ~4-4.5K/month.
Somewhat equivalent rental is 3.3k/month. https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/san-francisco-916-pac...
Cost of owning is ~1k/month more expensive. However you've locked in your mortgage for 30 years. Likely after 7-10 years the place you were owning will end up cheaper than renting on a monthly cost basis.
If adding together mortgage interest paid for 12 months + property taxes paid for the year together is less than the $12k single filer standard deduction, are there any tax benefits to owning a home?
When you add the fact that mortgage rates are low and house prices went up +50% last year, home ownership sounds pretty nice. People that bought a house a couple years ago have already broke even when you count equity.
At a certain ratio it doesn't make sense to buy (eg. imagine 1k rent vs 8k mortgage) This ratio depends on the growth rate of house prices vs opportunity cost (usually the stock market). Both markets have experienced recent instability, and their historical returns are pretty similar so it's a bit of a wash, but you do get much better liquidity with the stock market.
Personally I'm renting for 3k an apartment that would otherwise mortgage for 7k, which seems like a pretty good deal.