I can't speak to home prices but my anecdotal experience is that rents in New York are not outrageous. They're high, but generally you get more apartment for less money compared to San Francisco. Particularly if you look at living in uptown Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or Jersey City the rents can actually be a pretty good deal on an engineer's salary. And because New York is much more dense than SF, commutes are generally also much shorter given the abundance of public transportation options.