Rent in the downtown core is about $1700 for a 1-bedroom.
Developers can do decently well in Vancouver, especially if you are employed by a foreign company. I am not sure about typical salary for developers, but I'm doing okay.
So, compared to San Francisco, for a good developer, Vancouver is slightly better. However, for everyone else in Vancouver, it's a disaster, since the median income is much lower. This is why Vancouver is actually less affordable than San Francisco, for the general population.
