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The U.S. housing market has largely recovered from the recession a decade ago, with housing prices returning to peak levels. In San Francisco, a greater demand and lower supply coupled with a booming job market has birthed some of the largest growth rates in home prices in the nation.
According to Business Insider, a person who wants to buy property in San Fran needs a household income of $303,000 in order to afford the 20% down payment on a $1.5 million home, which is the median sale price on a home in the city.
The prices to buy are so astronomical that people are shifting their sights and dollars on small cottages that were built as temporary housing after the infamous 1906 earthquake. These 5,000 “earthquake shacks” sheltered over 16,000 people last century when the earthquake and fires obliterated 500 city blocks and left half the population–or 250,000 people–homeless.
Here are a couple then-and-now photos.
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Now, according to Business Insider, the remaining shacks still in existence are demanding prices that exceed $1 million.
The original tiny house, which was built by the Army and union carpenters, ranged in size between 140 and 252 square feet and were made with California redwood for the walls and fir for the flooring. They were positioned side-by-side in relief camps in locations so desirable that San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz were worried that the new refugees would “never want to leave their homes.”
Residents $2 per month for rent (I’m crying), which was put toward the $50 price of the cottage. When the cottage was paid in full, the owners were required to move their cottages off the relief camps.
The cottages were taken by horse-and-carriage all across the city, and many were renovated and remodeled into cozy, charming homes that exist today.
https://twitter.com/info_naijadad/status/969588159293067264
#TinyHouse Hidden San Francisco: These earthquake shacks beat the tiny house craze KGO-TV Decades before the tiny house craze took the world by storm, San Francisco was rocking its own miniature dwellings. After the 1906 earthquake… https://t.co/WuTv6wCRNT #construction #statyba pic.twitter.com/lRCwiXTpP6
— Architecture🏠Construction👷 design (@statybu) February 6, 2018
According to Business Insider, a 756-square-foot shack in San Francisco’s sought after Bernal Heights neighborhood, fetches a price of $900,000. The most expensive earthquake shack on record is a 650-square foot Cole Valley residence, which was sold for $1.4 million in 2016, $100,000 over asking price.
For that kind of money, you can buy a mega-mansion in Cleveland. But, you’d have to live in Cleveland.
Check out some of the fascinating pics of the earthquake cottages over at Business Insider.