Palo Alto is not particularly nice, though it is absurdly expensive. It’s fine if you’re OK sitting in your car for 30+ minutes every day, and having to drive everyone everywhere, including if you want to go for a run or to the dog park. But don’t expect to hang out with friends unless all your friends make $500k/year or more, or you drive for an hour each way (so you better not drink!)

It also practically only has 3+ bedroom homes: in NY you can buy a place for around 1 million, in Palo Alto those don’t exist. There is currently ONE 2 bed townhouse at $2 million for sale, right on the border of East Palo Alto. Then there’s a 2 bed bungalow (900 square feet) for sale for 2.6 million.

And you need a car! I cannot stress enough: you can’t live in Palo Alto comfortably without one. And your neighbors are all driving $60k+ cars, so add at least $1k each month in payments, insurance and maintenance. And enjoy your one “downtown” street with about as much to do as exists on the third-most-interesting commercial street in any Brooklyn neighborhood. Like imagine if the only place you could go grab a bite was the time out market building in dumbo. That’s as exciting as the entirety of Palo Alto’s downtown.