Many Bay Area residents have had it with high housing prices, want out of area

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It's hard to say when residents hit a tipping point, but there have been plenty of reasons the past few years why more Bay Area residents say they want to move out of the area.

RELATED: New poll says 46 percent of Bay Area residents plan to move

Last year, we saw one example when an average four-bedroom home in Sunnyvale sold for more than $800,000 over the asking price. The cost of housing continues to rise. Home prices in Santa Clara County jumped 23 percent from last year to a median price of $1.13 million dollars, according to CoreLogic.

The South Bay used to be a bargain compared to San Francisco. Now it is catching up to San Francisco's medium price of $1.32 million.

VIDEO: Report: Six-figure salaries considered low income in some Bay Area counties

Housing prices are so high, that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates a family of four in San Francisco is considered low income if they earn less than $105,000 a year.

It is a sentiment shared by many residents in the Bay Area. A Palo Alto Weekly survey earlier this year found that residents looked at families earning nearly $400,000 a year as simply middle class, still struggling to pay the bills and make ends meet.

VIDEO: Some Palo Alto residents with six-figure incomes identify themselves as middle class

Now, a new poll by the Bay Area Council said that an astonishing 46 percent of voters surveyed said they are ready to leave the Bay Area in a few years because of the high cost of housing. That is up 34 percent from a similar survey done just two years ago. Other reasons to leave include traffic congestion (18 percent) and poverty (14 percent).

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