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Hella. If you’re from NorCal you may have noticed my pun in the headline. Either way, the hella cool culture of the San Francisco Bay Area has slowly turned into a monetary hell and people are doing whatever it takes to get out while they still can.
Close to her family and where she’s from, my wife loves San Francisco, as do I. It’s beautiful. It’s full of art and history. There’s every professional and collegiate sports team imaginable. There’s a big, red bridge. But unfortunately, we discovered quickly that even finding a decent, affordable Airbnb would be a challenge. Imagining living there? No way.
Because of Silicon Valley continuing to influence the dramatic prices of homes and rent, along with rising taxes, people have had to sell their souls in order to scrape by. Now they’re tired of it and can’t get out of the city fast enough.
According to Business Insider, more residents are leaving San Francisco than any other U.S. city. But there’s another problem with trying to get out of dodge — the mass exodus has created a shortage of U-Haul moving vans in the Bay Area, meaning that the cost to leave has gone completely savage as well.
… consider the shortage of U-Haul moving vans in the Bay Area, which has inflated costs so much that it costs $2,000 to rent a truck from San Jose to Las Vegas — but only costs $100 the other way around, according to local news reporter Michelle Robertson from SFGate.
In fact, it costs twice as much to rent a truck from San Jose to almost any other destination city than to rent the same vehicle in the opposite direction.
And this mass exodus is going to stop any time soon. As of a February survey, 49 percent of Bay Area residents said they were looking to move out of the city eventually.
For those stuck there, I feel for you. Again, I love, love love San Francisco. But what is the cost of NorCal beauty?
One thing Millennials are quickly figuring out is that California or New York aren’t the only beautiful places to live with lots of culture and job opportunities. There are dozens of other smaller cities that have just as much to offer, yes even in tech, at a fraction of the price. That’s why my wife and I are moving to Chattanooga.
Just kidding. But Chattanooga is pretty rad too.
May not want to move here either: A Realtor’s Nightmare: The Worst Fictional Places To Live
Josh Helmuth is a contributor of Mandatory who loves San Francisco but could never live there. I know, so cliche. Follow him here. That wouldn’t be cliche.
