I&#x27;ve been wondering, as someone who has been observing the Bay Area on the outside, is it really the cost of living that&#x27;s so high or just the cost of housing?<p>I&#x27;ve been looking at some of the stats here:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bestplaces.net&#x2F;cost_of_living&#x2F;city&#x2F;california&#x2F;palo_alto" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bestplaces.net&#x2F;cost_of_living&#x2F;city&#x2F;california&#x2F;pal...</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bestplaces.net&#x2F;cost_of_living&#x2F;city&#x2F;california&#x2F;san_francisco" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bestplaces.net&#x2F;cost_of_living&#x2F;city&#x2F;california&#x2F;san...</a><p>It seems that aside from housing, everything else is just moderately higher.<p>Compare that to NYC, which is also on the list:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bestplaces.net&#x2F;cost_of_living&#x2F;city&#x2F;new_york&#x2F;new_york" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bestplaces.net&#x2F;cost_of_living&#x2F;city&#x2F;new_york&#x2F;new_y...</a><p>If it&#x27;s just housing that&#x27;s insanely expensive, I could see why some have been trying to arbitrage the situation by living in alternate housing arrangements (think RVs), such as some notorious cases with Google employees.