I've been wondering, as someone who has been observing the Bay Area on the outside, is it really the cost of living that's so high or just the cost of housing?

I've been wondering, as someone who has been observing the Bay Area on the outside, is it really the cost of living that's so high or just the cost of housing? I've been looking at some of the stats here: http://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/california/palo_alto http://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/california/pal... http://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/california/san_francisco http://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/california/san... It seems that aside from housing, everything else is just moderately higher. Compare that to NYC, which is also on the list: http://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/new_york/new_york http://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/new_york/new_y... If it's just housing that's insanely expensive, I could see why some have been trying to arbitrage the situation by living in alternate housing arrangements (think RVs), such as some notorious cases with Google employees.