Everyone I know who lives in SF and works in SV (and I've known a lot of them) lives in SF because they want to, not because it was the best choice economically

Everyone I know who lives in SF and works in SV (and I've known a lot of them) lives in SF because they want to, not because it was the best choice economically. They want to live in SF because of the culture or the nightlife, and are willing to endure sitting on a bus for 3 hours a day and paying way more to get way less in order to live there. For all of those people, if all they cared about was finding housing, it would have been way more practical to just get a place in Sunnyvale or Santa Clara or San Jose (or Morgan Hill, for that matter, although that's getting back into painful commute territory). Now, one might say, "but it's so much more boring to live in Sunnyvale than SF!", but that's still a choice being made for lifestyle reasons and not a housing decision that they were forced into. I would also say that if anyone is bored almost anywhere in this day and age, that that's far more a personal failing than a property of where they live, but that's totally besides the point. :)