Is Silicon Valley facing a tech exodus?

This appeared in The Millennial Source

For years, commentators have written about the possibility of a “tech exodus” from Silicon Valley spurred by high rental prices and the difficulty of achieving homeownership in the Bay Area, even for high-earning tech workers.

Coronavirus has added new pressure to this forecast exodus. With companies increasingly shifting to work from home regimes, the necessity of living in pricey environs like Silicon Valley has been greatly reduced. Some workers have already opted to exit while these new arrangements allow them.

Time will tell if this present exodus is a COVID-induced blip or is more indicative of a wider desire for tech workers and others to escape the high cost of living in Silicon Valley.

The old normal

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Silicon Valley was facing a variety of issues that put an immense strain on those living in the area.

Despite small decreases in some areas, the average cost of rent in the San Francisco Bay Area at the end of 2019 was among the highest in the country, with the average home valued at around US$1.34 million, a figure that falls far outside even the most well-paid IT employee’s budget.