Look around at the state. Nearly everything north of Sacramento is reasonably priced and not overpopulated. Most of the central Valley (San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys) is small-medium sized towns with reasonable cost of living. I know the Bay Area and the cost of housing as I still have friends there. My $320k house in a good part of Fresno would be $1-2 mil in Santa Clara County and wouldn't be on a $10,500 sq ft lot...
