People often tell me, "Yeah the Bay Area is expensive but the tech salaries make up for it."
By being able to get a Bay Area salary (e.g. $150k/year) while working from anywhere in the world (e.g. any city where $40k/year is considered comfortable living and $80k/year is considered "well off"), the incentive to continue saturating the area with local talent decreases.
Same salary, lower cost of living, AND the ability to be a homeowner in the foreseeable future? That's a hard deal to beat.
By being able to get a Bay Area salary (e.g. $150k/year) while working from anywhere in the world (e.g. any city where $40k/year is considered comfortable living and $80k/year is considered "well off"), the incentive to continue saturating the area with local talent decreases.
Same salary, lower cost of living, AND the ability to be a homeowner in the foreseeable future? That's a hard deal to beat.