Alexandria Belton feels as though the AI boom has priced her out of the San Francisco housing market, but is hopeful it's just a phase.
Courtesy of Alexandria Belton
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Alexandria Belton, 33, who is in the market for a home in the Bay Area. She's been priced out mainly due to the AI boom. The following has been edited for length and clarity.My fiancé and I started looking to buy a home around October 2025.A lot of people opt for a condo just because, A, single-family homes are very expensive, and B, people like city life, and you can sometimes get a little bit more of it with a condo.But for me, my apartment already serves that purpose, and if I'm going to buy something, I'd like to buy a single-family home with a yard and be suburb-adjacent.Also, with the condos, the return on investment is not very great. We've noticed in this market that all the condos are selling at or below list price, whereas everything else is selling well above list price. If we're going to invest in something in the Bay Area, we want to have a good return on investment.I currently live in a two-bedroom, two-bath in the Marina District, a pretty sought-after, expensive neighborhood, and I moved here in 2020 when I learned that rents were dropping.At the time, it was priced at $3,695. In fall 2025, they sent us a letter saying that they were going to retroactively raise the rent. Now it's $4,378.
