Much like the hunt for a place to live in the Bay Area, the search for child care is getting harder as prices rise. Over the past four years, the median cost of childcare in the nine-county Bay Area increased 40 percent, according to research from Oakland’s Insight Center for Community Economic Development. In San Francisco and Marin counties, the median cost rose more than 50 percent.
. . . In the last few years, as Bay Area real estate has become less affordable, it’s been harder for childcare providers to find spaces to operate. That’s a key reason prices have gone up, experts say. In the last decade, there’s been a 14 percent decline in the number of home child care providers in the Bay Area, according to the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network. Solano County has seen the steepest drop at 34 percent, the group said. Contra Costa County has seen a 27 percent decline.
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