Rent control in San Francisco is... dramatic.  My brother lives in SF in a really nice place that has a little bit of a bay view, even, and he made about that much when he moved in.<p>My understanding is that The law prevents the landlord from keeping rent in line with market, and makes it hard for the landlord to evict the current tenant, and even limits how much the landlord can jack up the rent between tenants.<p>Often in situations where one person has the master lease and then rents out rooms, that one person will keep a lot of the difference... but not always.   Quite often, it would seem, they are just more picky about choosing roommates.<p>But the upshot is that there are a small number of very inexpensive units in SF.   As far as I can tell, you have to know someone (or know someone who knows someone) and then you have to be lucky, and then that someone needs to like you.   But if all those things happen? potentially, you can have cheaper rent in SF than you can in San Jose.