[trhway]

>By that measure rents are unaffordable even to SV workers.

The rents in MV are $4K ballpark for 2/2 which is a minuscule part of all those $300-600K+ compensations around. Today for tech workers the situation is much more affordable, be it rent or buy, than it was 20 years ago when i first came here. 13 years ago i bought townhouse at the peak for almost 6x my salary back then at 5.25%, and it was a bit of uncomfortable stretch. Today a tech worker for 6x yearly comp at 3% can very comfortably afford a pretty nice house here. In the recent years a bunch of tech neighbors and acquaintances have already bought their second [town]house. Of course the tech workers with these money sloshing around have been the major factor making it much less affordable for everybody else.