Report says San Diego now is nation's least affordable metro area, surpassing San Francisco [View all]

Monthly analysis compares median home price with local incomes. Drop in S.F. housing prices made a difference.

The “San Diego discount” apparently still lives.

The term, which you don’t hear so much these days, suggests that pay here is comparatively less than elsewhere because people want to live in San Diego. It was often invoked in the sports world, particularly regarding the great Tony Gwynn, who remained a San Diego Padre his entire career even though he could have received more money signing on with another team.

The notion also was applied to San Diego at large, and sometimes was used interchangeably with the more familiar “sunshine tax” — meaning the cost of living, particularly housing, is higher in desirable places to live like San Diego.

Those, essentially, were the underlying factors in a housing-related survey that said San Diego had become the least affordable metropolitan area in the nation.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2022-02-16/me-sd-smolens-affordable