[refurb]

Agreed. How many people have been made millionaires through tech companies? 10,000? 20,000? Even 50,000?

There are 7 million people who live in the greater Bay area and they live in ~2.5M owner-occupied housing units. I can't see tech millionaires making that much of a an impact on housing prices. Sure, they could push prices up by 10-20%, but SF housing prices have pretty much doubled since the great recession.

I think it's the "now or never" mentality of home buyers. they think that prices will only ever go up, so if they don't buy now (even if it means overextending themselves) they'll never have a home. I'm sure a lot of people thought the same thing before the housing crash of 2007.

[bagels]

Prices are set on the margins.

Sales volume in the bay area are low for a variety of reasons (Prop 13, not enough new construction).

It doesn't take many people with high salaries when there is low inventory to push prices up.

If many more houses were for sale, the prices would plummet due to lack of buyers able to pay the current prices.

[stuckagain]

Millionaire doesn't just buy themselves a house. They also buy houses for their children! One of my colleagues at work just bought a house for her daughter, all cash, in Piedmont where every house costs more than a million bucks. She's a mid-level software developer, nothing remarkable or extraordinary but she has that kind of money.

As someone who once was outbid by an all-cash offer on a house in Piedmont I had to sort of grit my teeth over that one.