Don’t bet the farm on it.
I suppose it depends on the circumstances. Like whether/not you actually live in SF or general “Bay Area.”
Because, really, if you live in SF you can get twice the house with half the mortgage moving to Tracy or Antioch.
But depending where you choose to live in southern CA you may very well end up paying more – and in some cases substantially more.
We moved from San Leandro in Jan 2004. Our little 825 square foot, 2 bedroom, 1 bath home there fetched just over $500,000 (and that isn’t SF).
Got to Irvine and you couldn’t find anything in the form of a detached single-family home for that. You’d have to bump up into the 600’s or even 700’s. Even today you won’t find *anything* nearby under the high 800’s/low 900’s.
A friend in Newport Beach just sold his ~16 year home that he paid roughly $300,000 for. He sold it for $4.1 million.
Of course, you can get more for the buck going to Riverside or Palm Desert or somewhere out in the sticks. And, seriously, if you have a job where you start at 4:00am it really isn’t a problem. You just hit the freeway at 2:30am and the traffic is light. LOL.
[As a serious aside, consider this:
Irvine is somewhat unique in that almost all developable land is owned by a single entity – The Irvine Company.
When the Irvine Company sells land to developers they fetch $5 million/acre. If the developer plops down 6 homes per acre, my quick ‘n dirty math tells me you’re looking at 5/6 of a million dollars for the lot ONLY.
So basically look at any new home in a development and you're looking at $1.25 million and UP once it’s all said and done. Just so you’re prepared…]