I lived in the Bay Area for 30-some-odd years and never understood living in SF. Average workers spending 50-70%+ of income on rent and dealing with hipster-level prices of food and other costs of living. It seemed like a FOMO lifestyle of being "there".

I now live in ATX where it's essentially the same progression again: massive luxury apartment buildings being slapped together as fast as possible while there's thousands of homeless people. Don't even consider buying a home without throwing 40% over asking. It's insane. 30 miles away, enormous homes can be had for $400k, but of course, they're in the middle of nowhere.