best for what?

SF is very different from SJ is very different from LA. Traffic sucks in all of them. If both of you work, unless you get very lucky one (or both) will have a bad commute. You have to work hard to make that work.

Just swallow hard wrt housing. Don't compare it to SC or anywhere else. This isn't anywhere else. It's California...not for everyone.

$1600 gets me a 2br/1ba apartment in westLA with a 1-car garage. Decent neighborhood, not a great place but serviceable. Most houses in the neighborhood sell in the $700K range plus or minus, but way more as you move a mile or two north.

Find a duplex, live in one and rent out the other half. You might even find a foreclosure.