Very few tech companies have their HQ in SF. Of the top 100 tech companies in the valley, only Salesforce has their HQ in SF. Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Faceb

Very few tech companies have their HQ in SF. Of the top 100 tech companies in the valley, only Salesforce has their HQ in SF. Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Adobe, Ebay, they all have HQs in the peninsula south of SF. But they all open engineering offices in SF because that's where many (not all) of the engineering talent wants to live. People want to live in SF, and as tech skills are in demand, companies open up offices in locations that make it easier to attract talent. If anything, I see companies trying to hire outside of SF and promote other offices in lower cost areas -- e.g. Adobe in Utah. Over time, the rising cost of living will at some point drive people to want to live elsewhere, and then companies will be under less pressure to purchase expensive office space in SF. But believe me, it's not some irrational desire to make less money that causes tech companies to "insist" on leasing office space in the SF market rather than in the cheaper markets in other parts of the bay. The real problem here is that programming is driven by the young, and they generally don't have the same demand for cheap housing as those who are starting families. Generally speaking, people move out of SF when they have kids and are looking for good schools and more affordable housing. So I guess the cost of providing the more expensive office space for the cheaper (younger) worker works out for tech. So what you need is a sea change in the desirability of living in SF on the part of the younger/cheaper recruits that tech companies need. This is just a business decision at the end of the day.