2.6/5
1,989 reviews
Photo by Joseph Barrientos via Unsplash

San Francisco, CA

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homeless

beautiful

tech

work

good

car

window

parts

left

money

cost

expensive

income

full

afford

sense

2012

pretty

San Francisco was once a vibrant, beautiful, and walkable city with a thriving tech culture, but recent reviews highlight significant concerns in 2024. While the city still boasts charming neighborhoods, iconic architecture, and a concentration of smart tech workers, the quality of life has declined considerably due to policy and safety issues.

Cost of living is extremely high, with even the most modest setups running over $6,000 per month. One-bedroom apartments in central areas cost upwards of $3,500, and eating out or short-term rentals come at a premium. These expenses demand at least a $150,000 per year income for a basic lifestyle, and over $300,000 to live comfortably.

Safety is another major concern, with rampant car break-ins, aggressive theft, and a growing homeless population visibly affected by drug use. Residents note a marked difference from pre-COVID times, with crime now affecting previously safe neighborhoods. Even police presence outside flagship stores hasn't curbed robberies.

Although there's still a thriving AI and tech founder scene, most operate out of private offices or homes, and many influential tech figures have relocated to Silicon Valley or other states. As a result, SF feels less relevant for business and community interaction in the tech space today.

AI-generated summary of reviews

I just came back after 12 years, last time I lived in SF for 3 months in 2012. Back then it was a walkable and clean and fun, pretty safe city. The only place back then that you'd avoid was the Tenderloin. There was homeless but they actually weren't aggressive. There wasn't much robberies either.

San Francisco in 2024 is very different, as you've probably seen from social media. The homeless problem has grown a lot since then, and they're not just clustered in the Tenderloin, they're all over the city doing Fentanyl and the famous "leaning over" when they are high.

Robberies since COVID has exponentially grown. There's robberies on stores like Apple and Nike and I could see a 24/7 police presence now outside their stores with police inside the store even. If you park your car in SF, you will get the window smashed and the stuff taken out of. Criminals have radio sensors to detect any Bluetooth/WiFi signals to see if your car has valuables.

SF recommends keeping the car windows open so criminals can easily get in without smashing your window. The fact that that's official policy, is just insane.

I have to admit, you walk parts of SF, like the residential parts of Mission away from the main streets, and San Francisco is beautiful like it was in 2012. Beautiful trees, flowers, plants on the sidewalks, beautiful cute colored houses.

But why even be here when the most people important in tech having left San Francisco now?
- VCs are in Sand Hill Road, not SF
- Elon Musk just moved X/Twitter to Texas
- Stripe left San Francisco because of the crazy tax on every single payment
- Startup founders can now fly in to raise money, then work remotely from anywhere else

There is a really burgeoning AI founder scene in SF right now. But most of them are just inside their homes or offices and hardcore coding all day. So what's the point of being in SF? There's smart tech people yes but the really successful ones live South of SF in Silicon Valley where it's safer.

San Francisco is a beautiful city lost to bad policy. Maybe it'll make a comeback at some point. But not in 2024.

11 months ago

How did SF get scored #98 on Nomad score? I agree with most of the reviews posted here. I generally work from home, but we recently rented a small conference room for a meeting. It was $250 per hour.. (yes Per Hour... no typos here).

3 years ago

I've been living in SF since 2014 and I have to say Cost of Living is misrepresented. It's a lot more expensive now (2020) than posted. 1-bdr in center is $3,500-$4,000 + $200-$300 for parking + $100-$200 for utilities. Almost impossible to find month-to-month rent, so this is for 1-year lease. Coffee for two + a pastry is easily $20. Dinner for two never less than $50, unless it's fast food (+20% tips are expected) and if you want actually something good it's at least $100 for two. Airbnb is $150+ for a room, god know how much for a whole place. We've been living rather frugally, and our total bill a month is $6,000-$8,000 (we almost never go out and have our own car). I would not recommend living here unless your income is AT LEAST $150,000/year (for basic). We started feel comfortable with our expenses only when our total income hit $300,000. In terms of safety, it's really really bad. We live on a quiet street, but we have cars broken-in right under our window literally every week. I (female) don't go out alone after dark. And that's given that our place is one of the safest (South Beach) and quietest in the central part of the city.

5 years ago

Considering California cities, it’s a nice option to be a Nomad but very very pricey and full of big city issues.
I would highly recommend take a look around the cities in Silicon Valley: Palo Alto, San Jose, etc. because the offer of coworking places is very good. Although they could be as expensive as SF. Palo Alto was my favorite place.

6 years ago

Lived there for 5 month on a contract project in one IT company, With my monthly income of $3,400 it was disgustingly hard to have a normal lifestyle. The city is also very dirty, specifically the Mission. Would not recommend moving there as an expat.

6 years ago

A mixture of piss, weed, unwashed nerdy men, overpriced reality estate, passive-aggressiveness, homeless people and freaks

6 years ago

When I arrived in San Francisco in 2002, I could afford to split a 2 bedroom apartment on Haight Street right across from beautiful Buena Vista Park while making $15/hr as an architecture intern in North Beach. The city has changed completely since then. All my artist and musician friends have long since moved to Oakland and then to Los Angeles and other locations where the living is good but cost is much lower. Now SF is swarming with tech nerds in plaid shirts who add nothing to what was once a vibrant artistic community. Also, the homeless and druggie problem has gone off the charts. Don't even get me started on traffic and tourists. SF used to be a gem of a city. Now, at best, it is a place from which to base your work while you live far far away. I'm embarking on a chapter of digital nomadism myself, in just a couple of days!

6 years ago

The other two reviews are spot-on. I've been living here for 6 years and it's terrible. Nothing but nerds with no social skills, and trust me even the people working at top tech companies are struggling financially. You have legit homeless towns in some parts of the city, where you see 50-100 tents with homeless people. Some of them even have desks and BBQ grills. This is not a good place anymore and hasn't been for some time. Don't believe the hype.

6 years ago

Beautiful location but it's just way too expensive. You need to work full time at a tech company here to really afford it. It's also quite small. The divide between rich and poor is obscene, including a lot of homeless and many people asking for money all over. The tech workers who dominate the transplant crowd that you'll be around are mostly workaholic spoiled privileged people full of themselves, not the type I enjoy hanging out with. All the artsy, alternative, and activist types the city used to be known for either live in Oakland or left. The gender ratio is way too heavy on single males, so good luck getting a date, let alone a long term relationship, if you're a straight guy. Obviously, Internet speeds are great, plenty of spots to work from. Nightlife is pretty lackluster as you can imagine.

7 years ago

One of the worst places I have ever lived. Cost of living is horrible and living there makes no sense unless you want to work 100% of your time. Save your time and money and live somewhere where there is actual sense of community. I was able to afford it there, but it still didn't made any sense.

7 years ago

✅ Beautiful architecture and neighborhoods

✅ Smart tech community

✅ Pretty safe

✅ Fast internet

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Many Nomads.com members here all year round

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Roads are very safe

✅ Great freedom of speech

✅ Democratic

✅ Everyone speaks English

✅ Safe for women

✅ Family friendly

✅ Very friendly to LGBTQ+

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

✅ (Medical) marijuana MAY be legal, unenforced or decriminalized (always double check this)

❌ Very expensive cost of living

❌ High property crime and lack of safety

❌ Severe homelessness and drug issues

❌ Declining entrepreneur presence in SF proper

❌ Extremely expensive

❌ Not much to do

❌ Cold now

❌ Cold all year round

❌ Very damp now

❌ Nomads.com members really didn't like going here

❌ Feels crowded

❌ Difficult to make friends

❌ High alcohol consumption

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

13°C / 55°F cool

12°C / 54°F cool

14°C / 57°F cool

17°C / 63°F cool

16°C / 61°F cool

17°C / 63°F cool

16°C / 61°F cool

14°C / 57°F cool

11°C / 52°F cool

Real (median)

12°C / 54°F
cool

13°C / 55°F
cool

14°C / 57°F
cool

17°C / 62°F
cool

16°C / 60°F
cool

16°C / 61°F
cool

17°C / 62°F
cool

16°C / 61°F
cool

14°C / 57°F
cool

11°C / 52°F
cool

Humidity

damp
77%

nice
69%

damp
76%

damp
78%

damp
77%

damp
86%

damp
84%

damp
80%

damp
73%

damp
78%

Most common

☀️ Clear

Rain

rainy
73mm

dry
41mm

dry
38mm

dry
2mm

dry
1mm

dry
0mm

dry
2mm

dry
13mm

dry
28mm

rainy
111mm

Cloud

pockets
32%

pockets
20%

pockets
28%

pockets
23%

pockets
33%

pockets
29%

pockets
26%

pockets
25%

pockets
18%

pockets
39%

Air quality

clean
32 US AQI

clean
25 US AQI

clean
27 US AQI

clean
31 US AQI

clean
26 US AQI

clean
35 US AQI

clean
30 US AQI

clean
32 US AQI

clean
38 US AQI

clean
43 US AQI

clean
36 US AQI

Sun

safe
2 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

safe
2 UVI

Remote workers

3,774 people

3,741 people

3,373 people

2,683 people

3,848 people

3,226 people

3,300 people

3,539 people

3,483 people

3,318 people

3,457 people

2,870 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on San Francisco's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

	Software Engineering Team Lead @ bloXroute Labs
	Senior Staff Engineer Infrastructur... @ Pryon
	Senior Backend Engineer @ MoonPay
	Senior UI Engineer Senior Frontend ... @ Toku
	Blockchain Engineer @ MoonPay
	Senior Backend Software Engineer @ Bitwise Asset Management
	Senior Application Security Enginee... @ Loop
	Sales Engineer EN @ Tameson
	Lead Data Engineer @ Open Architects
	Product Engineer @ Zen Educate
	Principal DevSecOps Engineer @ Second Front Systems

Help pick the best photos for San Francisco and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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98pts

27pts

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$1,552 / mo

🌇 Also went here688 people

Singapore

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Very expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🚀 Super fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety great

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 34° 93° 29° 85°

✈️18h

$4,157 / mo

🌇 Also went here503 people

4,400 remote workers in San Francisco now, of which 16+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	2.6/5 (Rank #338) 1989 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍6 liked it 👎5 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Good
🎒 Community score	Good
💵 Cost	😳 Extremely expensive: $6,297 / mo
📡 Internet	🚀 Super fast: 80Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Bad
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥶 A bit cold: 16°C61°F (feels 16°C61°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	💦 Damp: 77%
💨 Air quality (annual)	🌱 Great: 32 US AQI
👌 Safety	Good
🤮 Food safety*	Great
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Good
🤝 Lack of racism*	Okay
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	Very high: $4,817 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Great
😤 People density	🧘‍♀️ Low density: 7k ppl/km² (1 per 12x12m)
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Okay
✈️ Airline scores*	Good
🧳 Lost luggage*	Okay
🏥 Hospitals	Great
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Okay
📶 Free WiFi in city	Okay
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Good
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Okay
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Good
👩 Female friendly	Okay
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Great
🎅 Startup Score	Good

🌍 Continent	North America
🚩 Country	United States
🗓️ Average trip length	12 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	80 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	☀️ 16°C 61°F + 💦 Damp (77%) = feels 16°C 61°F
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👍 32 US AQI
🔌 Power	115V 60Hz
🧔 Best neighborhood to stay	South of Market
🚀 Upcoming neighborhood	Alameda
🚕 Best taxi app*	Uber
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 Tipping	Yes, 15%
💳 Cashless	💳 Yes, cards OK almost everywhere
💻 Best coworking space	NextSpace
☕️ Best coffee place	Philz
🚰 Tap water	👌 Yes, safe to drink
♻️ Return rate	👍14% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	3,601,600 visitors
📸 Tourists now	69,025 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	870,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$57,808 / year
😤 Population density	🤨 busy: 12x12m (144m²) per person
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 51% 👱‍♀️ 49%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 52% 👱‍♀️ 48%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 83% 👱‍♀️ 17%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
💻 Online electronics shop	Amazon
🏠 Apartment listings	Craigslist
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Virgin America
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	United

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$6,297 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$5,197 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$12,770 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$3,649 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$3,245 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$5,449 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$3,400 / month
🏠 Median home price	$1,500,000
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$152 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$179 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$330 / month
🍛 Dinner	$20
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$4
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$7
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$5
👩‍🏫 International school	$32,174 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$17 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$7 / trip
💰 Estimated tax on $50,000	$12,352
💰 Estimated tax on $100,000	$30,278
💰 Estimated tax on $250,000	$71,127