I was renting a 600 sq.ft apt in SF for $3000 more than half a decade ago. The apartment management company raised rents with no rhyme or reason. I decided to m

I was renting a 600 sq.ft apt in SF for $3000 more than half a decade ago. The apartment management company raised rents with no rhyme or reason. I decided to move away from SF in hopes of lower rent and started to search mainly along the 101/280 or BART lines and found a lot of places that were vacant for more than a month but rents were exorbitantly high. It seemed like just one or two real-estate companies owned all those apartment complexes and were increasing the rents artificially each year. I finally realized moving further away doesn't help from overall costs. In SF I wasn't owning a car. When I moved away from SF, car became a necessity. If you add the cost of car ownership, it made up for the difference in the rent. And of course not to mention the drop in quality of life due to 1h+ drive on busy 101/280 each day.