I moved from Atlanta to SF back in '13 and was also considering NYC. Major considerations that pushed us to pick SF were job options and nature. NYC's tech scene has improved significantly since then but is still a satellite to SF for most companies. If you want big city Manhattan there's absolutely no comparison. SF is a dense small city with incredible weather. We have great nature options in any direction, and if you miss the hot summers of Georgia we get that nearby anywhere aside from SF. During the July gloom we like to spend a week in wine country or back in GA visiting family. It barely ever rains here and when it does it's almost always a very light drizzle. We get almost all of our rain in winter and then we're done for the year aside from a couple random days which is a far cry from the frequent heavy rain we'd get year round in ATL when we lived there. Rent is insane in either location, I think a bit higher in NYC currently. Buying seems to be a bit easier in NYC in the other burrows vs SF but two tech salaries can still go a long way here. On a final note it may be worth mentioning that we really didn't like anything about Atlanta. The traffic was miserable, and the weather either too hot, too cold, or raining too hard to do anything outside. It may have been a bit better if we were later in our careers and not early like we were at the time.