California's tax code contributes to housing illiquidity in the SF Bay Area. A dev who bought a home eight years ago has a substantially different net income a

California's tax code contributes to housing illiquidity in the SF Bay Area. A dev who bought a home eight years ago has a substantially different net income after housing and taxes from a similar dev who would be moving to the area. So there's some merit to the idea that SV/SF have a fixed number of developers for whom salaries in the $150k-250k range are excellent, and another pool of "new arrivals" for whom that salary is decent/good, but results in a substantially lower quality of life. Further raising salaries distorts the real estate market even more. Since SV/SF/California seems uninterested in the political moves necessary to improve the housing supply (sensibly, as these market changes would negatively impact the voters who have bought into the current system) the natural result is to move to other geographic markets for talent.