SJC may be more expensive than SFO, because of the smaller planes on the SJC routes, and there are less flights coming out of SJC. I'm not as knowledgeable about the specific planes used as the rest of FT community but from my experience the SJC planes seem a lot smaller.

We got lucky and bought at the bottom of the market, as a teacher there would be no way that I could afford current rent/mortgage prices here.