The culprits? Low renter turnover, aging building stock, and high intersection traffic density. In other words: nobody's leaving their apartment, the housing we do have is old, and good luck getting a moving truck down your street.

But let's talk about why nobody's leaving.

As one local put it bluntly: "Rent control and NIMBYs. No one has mistaken SF for ever being friendly to renters." That's the uncomfortable truth that City Hall doesn't love hearing. Rent control, whatever its intentions, creates a perverse incentive to never, ever give up your unit — even if it no longer fits your life. You're not staying because you love your 400-square-foot studio in the Tenderloin. You're staying because the moment you leave, your next rent jumps 40%.

Another SF resident offered a more nuanced take: "I don't like rent control as a renter because it makes moving more difficult for me due to a reduction in inventory. But rent control is a good thing in a world where Prop 13 exists. If we get rid of Prop 13 then I'm all for getting rid of rent control. They go hand in hand."

That's actually a fair point. Prop 13 locks in property tax assessments for homeowners; rent control does something similar for tenants. The problem is that both policies freeze the market in place, reducing mobility and strangling supply. We've built an entire housing ecosystem around the principle that the best move is to never move.

Meanwhile, the city continues to make new construction a bureaucratic obstacle course, ensuring that the "high average building age" factor isn't going anywhere. We're simultaneously making it hard to build new housing and hard to access existing housing. It's almost impressive.

The fix isn't mysterious: build more housing, streamline permitting, and stop treating the rental market like a game of musical chairs where the music stopped in 2015. Until then, enjoy your 4th-place trophy, San Francisco. We earned it.