If everyone made a list of their headaches with living in San Francisco, it would include crime and housing. To Mayor Ed Lee’s credit he frequently addresses these concerns at rallies and in public speeches. But forgive me a moment, I can not let the campaign video of a lifetime slip into oblivion:

So, Mayor Ed Lee can put on a cool guy persona. Let’s see if his housing promises can cool this lava hot housing market.

In the State of the City address, Mayor Ed Lee promised to add 30,000 housing units to the market by 2020.

For comparison One Rincon Hill, the tallest residential building in San Francisco at 641 feet tall, and a notable addition to the skyline, holds 376 residences. It would take an additional 80 buildings of that size to meet Mayor Ed Lee’s promise. In the last 44 years, San Francisco has only built 7 buildings of that size. Could the Mayor have over promised?

We take a look at the data from another angle. There are 376,924 housing units in San Francisco as of 2012 with 31000 listed as vacant. If all vacant housing units are refurbished and put on the market, then the Mayor can keep his promise!

I’m always happy when it can be shown that political promises are feasible. The next question to ask is, given the Mayor could add 30k housing units to the market what will the impact be on housing prices?

San Francisco Housing: