If you are throwing San Diego in the mix, I would go with that. SF might be the most overrated city in America.
If you are throwing San Diego in the mix, I would go with that. SF might be the most overrated city in America.
OP: The Bay Area and NY (Manhattan) are similar in terms of cost of living. You are single and do not have kids, so the Bay Area will be fine. There are many areas with decent 1 BR apartments that will be fine for somebody making 80K-100K.
The real problem starts when you have kids and need 2000 sq ft. and 3 bedrooms in a good school district. But that's not you, yet.
Don't listen to the talk about CA being bad for business. Yes, it's bad if you want to start some traditional small business with tough margins in a labor intensive industry. The taxes and employee-friendly regulations make it harder.
But I don't think that's what you have in mind. If you want to be a part of innovative technology or finance ventures, there is simply no better place to be outside of NY. (For finance, NY has no equal in the US, obviously.)
BTW, like some others above, I also am not a huge fan of the city of SF itself. But the Bay Area is a pretty big place and SF is just a part of it.