nbtdev

There are 7 million in the 9- county Bay Area, and having lived there for ten years, that is the stat that matters.

http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/

Cost of living on the peninsula has already pushed many people to the east and south and even then you don't get much of a break. Land use restrictions mean there is very little new land on which to build and having to jump through eleventy different legal hurdles to do so means that when built, it's already more expensive than many of those in need can afford.

I moved away after being there ten years as a software developer because the cost of living, level of congestion and crowding was obnoxious, and I have no intention of returning. But then, I had that option.