Or consider that the bay is more than SF. I recently moved to Oakland and I'm paying around $1k/mo on rent compared to $2k/mo or more living in the city while not really giving up any of the benefits of living in the area.
My commute is 30-35 minutes each way (walk to Bart, work in downtown SF). For comparison, when I lived in Lower Haight my commute time was 25 minutes each way (MUNI bus a block from my apartment to downtown).