Yeah, this, the problem is just interesting because everywhere within a 60-minute commute is almost a million dollars. At least in real cities with high density (e.g. not San Jose), the rent makes sense because it's close to things you want. In the suburbs of SJ and the greater Bay Area, the difference in rent between the "downtown" area, or even downtown SF proper, seems like way less of a difference between the rent in Manhattan vs the suburbs. My point is that the suburbs here are terribly over-priced and over-valued, but I guess we could argue based on the logic that got us to this point: "it's worth what people will pay for it".

Rent, and home prices, in downtown San Jose are lower than they are in the surrounding suburbs such as Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara. It's the reverse of the situation near San Francisco.