When I started searching on staying in a hotel instead of renting in San Fran I started finding crazy stuff like commuting from Las Vegas on a flight daily is cheaper than living in San Fran. That is nuts. Are people really making that much extra money there to offset the costs? I doubt it. Would a software developer who makes $100K anywhere else suddenly make $136K or more in San Fran to offset costs? Is pre-ipo shares the carrot that is dangled? The allure/glamour of working in the Bay Area? It has to be something more than just the money to get people to pay the insane prices to live there.
Bay area has a few things going for it 1) it's the number 1 destination for recent college graduates 2) in terms of tech there is an echo system 3) people who work hard also play hard and Bay area has proximity to Napa & Sonoma, Lake Tahoe & Reno, Carmel/ Pebble beach, after NYC 2nd highest concentration of high end restaurants in the country including some destination restaurants eg French Laundry IE it's a Mecca for foodies...
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