You fail to mention whether you are a US citizen (or permanent resident) or not. This makes a huge difference. If you are a citizen, you can always rent for a y

You fail to mention whether you are a US citizen (or permanent resident) or not. This makes a huge difference. If you are a citizen, you can always rent for a year and find out yourself. There is no substitute for that. I think the golden age of SV/Bay Area is behind us. It might come back with AI but I think this revolution will be more decentralized or happen somewhere else. That being said, that's irrelevant. A place (and a person) are complex and complicated things, and you can only make this call by trying the place for a few months.