It depends on the companies these people work for, though. Someone who has worked for a company like Facebook or Google with large salaries and generous RSU grants will eventually be able to buy a house in Silicon Valley. The RSUs would be enough for a down payment, and their salaries are sufficiently high to cover the mortgage. Now, places like Cupertino and Sunnyvale may still be stretch goals because a house in those cities could exceed $2 million, but a $1 million house in Fremont, Milpitas, San Jose, or Redwood City is entirely in reach for people with that level of compensation.

But not all tech companies in Silicon Valley pay Facebook/Google levels of compensation. There are plenty of engineers in Silicon Valley who make low six-figure salaries (i.e., $100K-$150K) and who don't own five or six figures worth of stock. I fall in this category. While we can afford to rent apartments in Silicon Valley, buying a house within an hour commute from Silicon Valley in a safe neighborhood is definitely a stretch goal for us. If I want to buy at my current salary, it's either a 2-bedroom condo in South San Jose or in Alameda County, or it's a long commute from exurbs such as Tracy and Hollister.

Now, San Diego is much more affordable and would be a very appealing option for me since the housing prices are within reach, perhaps not in places like La Jolla, but in places a little further away like Oceanside and Escondido. I wouldn't mind relocating to either one of those places.