An Impending IPO Boom Has Sparked FOMO Among San Francisco Home Buyers - WSJ
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- San Francisco home buyers are offering $1 million over asking as an impending IPO boom triggers FOMO in the housing market, with wealthy AI workers identified as driving prices sharply higher.
- Some SF home sellers are now accepting private stock from AI companies like OpenAI or Anthropic in lieu of traditional cash payments, reflecting the unconventional wealth flooding into the market.
- The housing market has become so competitive that premium offers well above asking price are becoming a competitive necessity, not an exception, in the AI-employee-rich neighborhoods of the city.
Why it matters: Wealthy AI workers are pushing San Francisco home prices higher and forcing sellers to accept non-cash instruments like private AI startup equity, reshaping deal terms in what is already one of the country's most expensive housing markets and effectively sidelining traditional cash buyers.
