I moved to the Bay Area in 2014 after 14 yrs of commuting. I'm leaving in April. I'd rather commute again than stay here. Between the traffic, housing costs and exceedingly high cost of living it's not worth it to me. I can't wait to leave.

I'm single w/ no kids and I'm not willing to pay these taxes for the next 22 yrs of my working life. The Bay Area is crowded, very crowded and extremely expensive. My 2 bedroom apartment 35 minutes north of the city is 3K/month. Houses here start around 800K if they need quite a bit of work. If they're move in ready, you're looking at a million to start. All for the the privilege of giving California 9.3%, 1.25% property taxes (plus 30K "mud bond" if it's new construction) and soul crushing traffic.

You'll need to really love it to justify the cost in my opinion. My auto insurance is more than double what it was in my home state. Sure, it's a nice looking place but if you want to go somewhere cool on the weekend, you'd better pack a lunch because the traffic is simply nasty. Everything is crowded on weekends when the city folk head to the country. I live in southern Sonoma County and on the weekends you'd swear the population has doubled.

Just google "why I'm leaving the Bay Area" and read a bit.