East Palo Alto resident, here. Not at all surprised to hear this; our town used to be the last place on the Peninsula where non-engineers could afford to live, but those days are gone. See here for some history:

https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/east-of-palo-altos-eden/

Some reasons:

- Predatory lending resulted in a 35% foreclosure rate on single-family homes since 2008, half of which are now owned by people who don't live in town. More at http://archive.peninsulapress.com/2013/07/16/squeezed-by-the...

- Until mid-2016, virtually all of the high-density rental homes in East Palo Alto were owned by a single absentee landlord in Chicago, who was hell-bent on chasing out as many residents as possible so they could reset rents to "market rates" or (better) knock down the apartments and build condos. More at http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/02/16/exclusive...

- The price of local housing has jumped since Facebook opened their new campus, offering a $10,000 to $15,000 payment to employees who live within 10 miles of One Hacker way. More at http://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-benefits-idUSKBN0U02...

I'm sad to read some of the comments. "If you can't afford to live in your neighborhood, get the hell out" is a sentiment that will definitely come back to haunt you.