I assume you live in SF/bay area because you seem unaware of what rent prices are in other large cities. Just take a look at two searches on craigslist: Apart

I assume you live in SF/bay area because you seem unaware of what rent prices are in other large cities. Just take a look at two searches on craigslist: Apartments in SF: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/ http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/ Apartments in NYC: http://newyork.craigslist.org/aap/ http://newyork.craigslist.org/aap/ Rent is clearly much higher in San Francisco. And for much, much les desirable neighborhoods. There are numerous neighborhoods in New York (the village, LES, Upper East or West Sides, Brooklyn Heights, Astoria, Green Point, LI City, Gramercy, a thousand more) where one could feasibly find a small but cheap studio or 1br for around 2k/month. This is close to 1k cheaper than the nicest neighborhoods in SF. And all of this analysis ignores the fact that the nicest neighborhoods in NY are vastly better than SF. Better grocery stores. Nobody owns a car; you'd be a fool to spend money on one. Cleaner neighborhoods where people don't urinate in the street. A much larger selection of restaurants and shops. I suspect San Francisco's residents are either aware of the many shortcomings, or have just never lived in a big city and thus assume that all big cities are expensive and lacking, when it's clearly not the case. (I compare to NYC because I know that city best, but I'm confident Seattle, Boston, Austin, Denver, and many others are probably fine places to live as well, and at less than half the cost of SF.)