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uilt only 31,000 new homes. 18 The city of San Francisco expects to gain 52,000 jobsbetween 1995 and 2000 but will build just over 8,000 new homes. In 1998 alone, the citygained 10,000 jobs and built 874 new units. 19• Relative affordability: In the Washington, D.C. area, housing demand has been at recordlevels in the region’s most desirable neighborhoods, leading many buyers to consider lowercostneighborhoods as an alternative. Real estate professionals attribute this demand toincreasing traffic congestion in the metropolitan area, ease of access to downtown for jobsand cultural amenities, optimism about the new mayor’s ability to improve city services, andcreation of a new homebuyer credit. This affordability draw is also true in theBayview/Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco and in West Oakland, both of whichare particularly accessible inexpensive neighborhoods with extensive single-family housingstock.• Lucrative investment potential in high risk neighborhoods: Some investors seek outgentrifying neighborhoods or neighborhoods with gentrification potential to find bargainhousing that can be renovated and re-sold for substantial profits. Housing speculationthrives in rapidly changing markets, where properties turn over quickly, where low income,often elderly original residents are anxious to pull out newfound equity, or where originalresidents may not have sufficient information to understand the increasing value of theirhomes.• Large rent gap: Smith argues that supply constraints and speculative gains are furtherexacerbated when property owners and real estate interests deliberately disinvest from innercity housing markets until a “rent gap” emerges. When this gap is large, i.e., when thepotential difference between the value of the property before renovation and after renovationis large, capital moves back into the neighborhood, hastening gentrification. Smith furtherargues that government at all levels amplifies this effect through various zoning, financingand fiscal policies. 203. Preference for City AmenitiesCertain demographic groups traditionally have preferred to live in urban neighborhoods witheasy access to amenities, including vibrant culture and street life, ethnic and racial diversity,distinctive and often historic architectural styles, and close proximity to downtown entertainment andcultural venues. The presence of these amenities helps to identify which city neighborhoods aremost likely to gentrify. These populations, including admittedly overly broad descriptors as “culturalcreatives” like artists, young professionals, empty-nesters, and gay and lesbian households, oftenare less likely to have children in the local public schools and may be relatively more able than other18 Yee, Cameron Y. and Julie Quiroz-Martinez, Urban Habitat Program, There Goes the Neighborhood: ARegional Analysis of Gentrification and Community Stability in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1999, endnote 2, p.28.19 Smith, Matt, “Welcome Home,” SF Weekly, Vol. 18, No. 28 (August 18, 1999) p. 18, p. 20.20 Smith, and Strategic Economics, p. 10.11