SF Housing Stock Report

While I was surfing for information about the Trinity Plaza Project (see yesterday’s post), I stumbled across the city’s 2001-2004 Housing Stock report.

It is fairly interesting reading. The key findings are below, and their is a link to the entire report at the end of this post.

Housing Production
This Housing Inventory reports on the changes in the City’s housing stock, for the period 2001-2004. As of 2004,
there are 354,063 total units in the City: 32% are single-family homes, 34% are in buildings with 2 to 9 units and 34%
are in buildings with 10 or more units.

2001-2004 was a time of extraordinary housing production in San Francisco with the construction of 8,389 new
units. Production rates for all four years exceeded annual production rates of the past 20 years varying from a low
of 1,779 units in 2001 to a 20-year high in 2003, when 2,730 new units were constructed.

The strong economy of the late 1990s slowed considerably in 2000. However, much of the housing was already
authorized for construction, allowing housing production to reach a 20-year high in 2003 with 2,730 new units
completed.

The construction of new units is overwhelmingly (70%) in buildings with 20 or more units. This trend is expected to
continue because 70% of the units authorized for construction between 2001 and 2004 were in buildings with 20 or
more units.

According to the 2000 Census, almost half of the current housing stock is studios or one-bedrooms and the limited
data available on bedrooms for new units indicate studios and one-bedrooms dominate new housing production.
Housing construction during the reporting period was concentrated in the eastern side of the city especially in the South of
Market Planning District, where a total of 2,926 new units were completed during the reporting period. The South of
Market Planning District includes: the Mission Bay districts, the Industrial zoned areas (M-1 and M-2), SoMa specific
zoning districts and some residentially zoned areas. Housing production in the industrial zones fluctuated greatly during this
period: between 2001-2003 production tripled, but by 2004 only three units were completed in these zoning districts.
Housing production is concentrated in the South of Market area largely because of a number of large new buildings in Rincon
Hill, e.g. the 245-unit Bridgeview and 226-unit Avalon Bay Towers, and in Mission Bay, Mission Place with 595 units and
Avalon Bay at Mission Bay with 250 units. Many of the units authorized for construction are in Mission Bay and Rincon Hill
and hundreds of units will be completed over the next few years continuing the trend of high production in this planning
district.

While production decreased in 2004 for the first time since 1995, the number of new units constructed (1,780) still exceeded
the 10-year (1,473) and 20-year (1,513) average annual production rates. Moreover, this one-year decrease may change
soon due to increases in units authorized for construction in 2002 and 2003, one of the indicators of future housing construction.

Affordable Housing
This Housing Inventory also discusses the production of affordable housing. As of 2004, the City has a total of
22,835 affordable housing units as classified by the Mayors Office of Housing and 14,129 public housing units under
the San Francisco Housing Authority.

This period of major market-rate housing production also produced increases in affordable housing developments.
Between 2001-2004, 2,284 affordable units were constructed with a high of 842 units in 2002. Over half of the new
affordable units are extremely low or very-low income rental units for families.

There were a total of 514 inclusionary units built during the reporting period, but many of these were part of large
redevelopment projects, e.g. 99 units were built as part of the Paramount project, which have higher inclusionary
requirments.

This peak in affordable housing construction was fueled by general inceases in housing production as well as the
completion of a number of San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) projects including: the 193-unit Plaza East, the
160-unit New Bernal Dwellings, and the 341-unit North Beach Place.

Most of these SFHA projects replaced structures demolished in previous years. The demolition of the 229-unit North
Beach Place in 2003 and the 246-unit Valencia Gardens in 2004 account for the unusually high number of multi-family
units demolished in the last two years.

Read the SF Housing Report in PDF format.