If you're determined to life in SF, don't want to have a car, and want to be reasonably close to where most tech events happen (SOMA), I'd recommend "lower nob

If you're determined to life in SF, don't want to have a car, and want to be reasonably close to where most tech events happen (SOMA), I'd recommend "lower nob hill", which is a nicer way of saying the northern part of the tenderloin. The northern borders would be Pine or california, and the southern borders would be Geary. I wouldn't go any farther south than geary, and the closer to union square, the better. There's studios in that area to be had for $1200 or so. You can always go out the sunset or the richmond, but then transportation becomes a pain and there's nothing out there. Also, if you're trying to minimize expenses, you're probably better off finding a 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom and getting another 1-2 roommates, as the price of rentals doesn't scale linearly with the number of bedrooms.