bay area housing is not made for the common joe. They are marketing it for them top executives and managements that brings home the bacon. It just that your common joe so happens to pick up some of them houses and to do so, they are utilizing 80% of their monthly income on housing alone. They can survive but at what cost?
You want to play the bay area, you gotta have a plan. Lots of options on how you can do this. My janitor friend only makes min wages which is about $15 an hour but he was able to close himself a house worth 850K. Low income qualifier programs thus why. He will eventually work till he die just to pay off his house.
There are also this option that I learned from a mexican person working in the bay area. He works in the bay to get the pay but he pumps his money back home and is currently building his foundation like buying a whole role of houses down there. When he is done or retire, he will go back to his hometown and will reap in his rewards. This concept can be used for us too. You then are the pioneer to your family. You go where the money is at, make them papers and you pump that money back to where you are at now. Build up a foundation or save for a business and when you are done, you will then be the king of your castle. With a bigger bankroll, you can reach your goal faster. If it takes you 20 years to build a castle in the midwest, you can now do it in 10 years since the bay area pays are no joke.
People who are from the bay area are starting to wisen up and moving out. A house here in the bay area can fetch you lets say 1 mil. Sell 1 mil and go buy 3 houses for the same price in the central valley which is only 1.5 hours away. Live in one and rental property the other 2. We are talking about a 300K homes here. Houses around that range in the central valley are far from ghetto.
I'm sure there are other options on how people are living but that's about the basic of them all. If you want your money to grow super faster, get yourself a trailer and play the homeless route. $10 a month at a gym to shower and live in your trailer van till you make a million then change option.
results may varies
but bay area, foods are great, the weather is great, beautiful people, tons of things to do and see but the housing issue makes it not perfect.