I definitely agree that people limit themselves on area. I understand why they do, but it does restricts their options. When we were looking, we looked everywhere. Our only limiting factor geographically was being able to take public transit to Oakland relatively easily, but that still meant we were seeing and bidding on houses all over the city neighborhoods, as well as east, south, and west of the city (and somewhat to the north, but less so). Originally we wanted to be somewhere that we wouldn’t have to transfer bus lines, but quickly realized that was too limiting, so we adjusted accordingly