After taxes and medical, his take-home is about $8,000 a month or so. He's spending a little more than 1/3 on his rent, which is not good. That $3,000 a month might not even be a super nice place in a good neighborhood, either. Those would be more in the $4,000 to $5,000 range.
So that leaves him with about $5,000 a month for his other expenses. Let's say he lives frugally and can live life on $2,000 a month. That leaves him $3,000 a month to put into savings. That's not bad!
Now, let's assume he wants to own his own home in the Bay Area someday. Everything is going to be in the one million rage, unless you are buying a tear down or a really small apartment. So you're going to want 20%, or $200,000 as a down payment. Saving at $3,000 a month means he'd have the money after working for five years. That's five years of frugal living, no car, no vacations, and then his mortgage payments would be in the $5,000 a month range.
Yeah, the numbers are big, but he's never going to be in a position to live "the American dream", with a house and kids for at lease five years, and then it'll still be kind of tight.