People would be more open to renting if renting didn't cost more than owning per square foot for no reason. Renting's gotten a bad rap cause of that.
I’d love to own my own place, but it’s extremely expensive in the San Francisco Bay Area. Personally the best I could hope for is commuting from an exurb like Tracy or Fairfield. However, while rents are very high here in the Bay Area, they are still considerably lower than mortgages for similar homes.
2. I have a tenure-track faculty position. Academic jobs are hard to come by and are competitive to get.
3. The Bay Area’s tech opportunities are unparalleled. Even though I’m no longer working in industry, I can still take advantage of summer consulting roles as an academic, and I also can easily reach out to various companies for other academia-industry partnerships. I can easily keep up to date with the latest technological developments through local Meetup groups. Resources like the Computer History Museum are commutable to me. If I want to start a small tech company, I have plenty of networking opportunities.
4. The Bay Area is culturally diverse and has a high level of acceptance of ethnic minorities.
5. As someone who travels to Japan twice a year, it’s convenient being a sub-$100 Uber or Lyft ride away from a major international airport with direct flights to my choice of Tokyo airports (Narita or Haneda).
6. There are many cultural amenities in the Bay Area. If I want to see a concert from a world-famous musician, chances are high that he or she will be stopping in the area. I can choose between plenty of museums and performance halls.
7. I know this is cliché, but it’s hard to beat California coastal weather.
8. Wonderful Asian food!
I thought about leaving the Bay Area earlier this year. While it’s very expensive and while I’ll never be able to afford to buy a home on my professor salary alone, as a lifelong Californian I don’t know if I’d be happier somewhere else. Sure, I could afford a home in the South, the Midwest, or another part of the country with low housing costs, even with a 30% pay cut, but I’d give up many of the things that I’m accustomed to in California. I love Seattle, but it is also expensive. I could see myself living in Japan, but the weak yen plus lower salaries and less vacation time (compared to American academics) are major downsides for me.
Thus, I remain in the Bay Area, though I’m actively searching for side business opportunities so I could find a way to increase my income so that way buying a home would be achievable.
Where I live though, ownership only costs a little too much and renting costs WAY too much
It's not for no reason. Renting will always be more expensive because the home owner maintains the house. When you buy it, it's assumed that you'll maintain it yourself. So it costs less. Naturally, as is entirely expected.