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The study only considered cities with 30,000 or more residents that were located within a 20-mile radius of San Francisco. Commute times were given the most weight in the analysis — 40 percent of the total score — followed by median home prices at 30 percent, and school ratings and crime statistics at 15 percent each, said Patrick McGregor, the lead researcher on the study for PropertyShark.
So they consider only 20 miles radius, in that case, what’s the purpose? I am sure Fremont and Dublin would over take Pacifica if you are doing raw count.
The center of gravity in BA is not San Francisco, but Silicon Valley.
Why?
Why not.
Remember Y Combinator moved their HQ from Mountain View to SF? When even being 30 miles away is not close enough that should tell you something.
They are saying these cities are the best bargain and people should consider them if they commute to SF. They are not counting the number of people currently commuting to SF from these cities.
San Leandro is a black horse here. Also I am seeing more and more people mentioning the Chinese restaurants there. That’s my secret lead indicator. 
I would argue that living in Dublin, Walnut creek or Fremont over Hayward if you have kids and you want to send them schools with good rating. Just that limiting by 20 miles hide other options that might be valuable to people
Not denying that people are commuting farther and farther out, but this 2:30am title is misleading. Catching a bus at 2:30am for a shift that starts at 4am means a 90-min commute each way which does not seem extreme at all.
15 year ago we lived in Milpitas and my wife drove to Fremont BART then ride to downtown SF. Her commute was 1 hr 10 mins each way. We thought it was pretty long but it turned out that it was just average. The company she worked for did a survey among employees and 70-min was middle of the pack. Some employees who lived in outer sunset in SF also took an hour to get to work by public transportation.
I saw a lot of houses being built in the Mountain House area just over the Altamont Pass. There’re still huge tracts of farmland available. It makes sense for the center of SV gravity to move east and have more companies HQ’ed in Pleasanton, but so far it’s not happening fast enough. Pleasanton is a very nice town, with decent Chinese and Indian food. It reminds me of San Jose, but with newer houses and wider roads.