For the $4300 you mention, I seem to be able to find real houses (1500 sq ft and 3 bedrooms) in downtown Mountain View, presumably a premium location if you wor

For the $4300 you mention, I seem to be able to find real houses (1500 sq ft and 3 bedrooms) in downtown Mountain View, presumably a premium location if you work at Google for instance: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/apa/d/old-mountain-view/6673552905.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/apa/d/old-mountain-view/667... https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/apa/d/pet-friendly-house-nr-google/6684545396.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/apa/d/pet-friendly-house-nr... Sounds good enough to start a family to me. And of course, once you become a little bit more senior and your salary goes over $200K, you won't mind spending so much on rent and will start saving significantly more than elsewhere. It's possible that there is a natural filter in play here, with the people whose salary is not increasing significantly basically forced to leave.