San Francisco's housing crunch is, to some extent, a structural problem.
San Francisco is known for its beautiful Victorian and Edwardian homes. The city is reluctant to allow owners to tear down these historic structures and replace them with denser infill housing.
There are an estimated 390,376 housing units in San Francisco, and according to the SF Housing Data Hub, almost half of them — 184,175 units — were built before 1940.
This is San Francisco's catch-22. The Painted Ladies give the city its character. Without them, San Francisco wouldn't be San Francisco. But without more housing, San Francisco real estate has moved out of reach for all but the wealthiest.