nation level can’t possibly be the only reason, because there is clearly appetite for building tall buildings in e.g manhattan. (consider hudson yards, which is an entire chunk of tall buildings that opened about 5 years ago, literally built on top of a rail yard, surely adding substantially to the cost). SF land isn’t literally manhattan but it’s still pretty valuable. state wide building codes is more plausible, i don’t know much about california building codes compared to ny.
nation level can’t possibly be the only reason, because there is clearly appetite for building tall buildings in e.g manhattan. (consider hudson yards, which is an entire chunk of tall buildings that opened about 5 years ago, literally built on top of a rail yard, surely adding substantially to the cost). SF land isn’t literally manhattan but it’s still pretty valuable. state wide building codes is more plausible, i don’t know much about california building codes compared to ny.
California has approximately the most restrictive building code in the country.