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.

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