The City of San Francisco, which has been grappling with significant urban issues ranging from a fentanyl crisis to high housing costs, is looking forward to the tenure of incoming mayor Daniel Lurie. Lurie, a Levi Strauss heir, won the mayoral race over incumbent London Breed, capturing 56% of the vote with a campaign focused on rectifying the city's pressing challenges, including crime and the housing affordability crisis. As reported by Realtor.com, Lurie has pledged to declare a state of emergency on drugs and to build "enough housing, so our neighbors can afford to live here."

Recent trends have highlighted that the out-migration from San Francisco has stabilized after a peak in 2021 when 57,000 residents left the city, as noted by Hamilton Lombard, a demographer with the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center. Nonetheless, the median list price for homes dropped from $1,436,000 in 2020 to $1,192,000 in 2024, indicating that housing affordability is still a significant concern. Eric Finnigan of John Burns Research and Consulting pointed out that San Francisco authorized 3,000 housing units for construction in the past year, lagging behind other California cities like Sacramento, which allowed nearly four times that amount.

The San Francisco Chronicle has reported on some of the pivotal commitments made by Lurie, which include increasing the pace of housing development and improving the city's permitting systems. "We are going to work collaboratively to address our affordability crisis," Lurie said through a spokesperson, as per the San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco is mandated to plan for 82,000 new housing units by 2031, but it's uncertain how many will eventually be constructed due to various obstacles. These include high interest rates, NIMBYism, and an often complex city bureaucracy. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Lurie explained his intentions for robust reform: "Ultimately, housing is essential infrastructure, and to get it built faster and more affordably I will hold our permitting system accountable by closing loopholes and cutting through red tape."