Really worth 3x the price?

This
article just confirmed my worst fears: the likelihood of me ever
affording a home in the Bay Area is about equal to (or rather, dependent upon)
me winning the lottery.

For $198,000, you can get a new
three-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot house from Standard Pacific Homes, complete
with two-car garage, marble sinks and extensive landscaping.

But you'll have to move to Dallas or Phoenix.

To buy a similar Standard Pacific house in San Jose, you pay $665,000
-- more than three times as much.

So, is it really three times better in San Francisco than in other large
cities in the nation?  I mean, from what I understand, I could even move to
other coastal cities such as Los Angeles for a fraction of what I'd pay here in
San Francisco.

Is SF really all that?  I've had lingering doubts, frankly... increasingly
becoming tired of the stratification, the little enclaves of walled-off
"diversity," the holier-than-thou political correctness run amok, and the
ever-present fog over my rent-controlled-but-still-ridiculously-priced-apartment
that I share with my 40-year-old (also bitter) roommate.

And speaking of bitter... forgive me for being a bit on the ranting side
today, but, well, it's Monday.  And yet another one of my friends just got laid
off and will be unable to afford his cool apartment anymore... the same one he
used for frequent entertaining social events.  I'll miss those parties.  But
more importantly, it's just like another nail in the coffin for him and for me.

Maybe I never really belonged here in the Bay Area.  Maybe it's time to leave
before I get an even less subtle kick in the ass.