[baddox]

> I've never found the cost for living terribly high. All I need is a private room in a shared dwelling.

That's fair enough, and describes me when I moved to SF straight out of college. It's probably also fine (even necessary) if you're a student or bootstrapping your own startup. But I've only been here two years, and it didn't take long for me to get sick of having a home situation that's in many ways worse than when I lived in my college's dormitory and significantly worse than my last two years of college living in a one bedroom apartment. With no lack of great and lucrative career opportunities in the area, I wish I didn't have to either live like a starving college kid in a house packed full of starving college kids or spend 20 hours a week searching for an affordable studio apartment in a tolerable location. Although I've actually been hearing good things about Oakland...

[tommaxwell]

Like the commenter above, I stayed at StartupHouse for awhile, actually until they got shut down. It was pretty awesome to have my own bed, good WiFi, and be in the middle of SOMA for ~$1,000/month. I also interned at a startup in SF and lived pretty happily during that time. I was being paid $40k/year, but it was a 6-month internship so really only $20K. But I lived pretty well. I had a bed to sleep on in the city, I went out with friends on the weekends, and had a great time. I guess it all depends on your priorities and the standard of living you're looking for.

[cmccabe]

You don't have to live like a college student. Move to the south bay and you can get a 2BR place for half of what you're paying now. We have dishwashers, washing machines, garages, and storage rooms here too, oh my!