So, official vacancy rates from a leasing perspective. This doesn't cover leased space that nobody's using or that's partially occupied. My understanding is tha

So, official vacancy rates from a leasing perspective. This doesn't cover leased space that nobody's using or that's partially occupied. My understanding is that office leasing tends to be longer term than residential, though I'm not sure what kind of early termination provisions might be typical that would add signal back to the noise. Some reasons I can think these stats might be misleading: * Long term leases signed recently (pre-pandemic) that are still in effect (though now that I realize we're almost at the 3 year mark, I suppose this is wearing off). So younger companies that just got started in SV might disproportionately skew our stats. * Companies prioritizing some cost saving measures (layoffs) over others (real estate). "Legitimate" reasons I can think of that SV offices might be more in-demand than other places: * Younger average workforce (?). Anecdotally, younger workers prefer the office, and it feels like younger talent flock to SV early in their career (and/or tech companies discriminate against older workers). Younger workers might prefer the office for all sorts of reasons; social life, fewer fears about illness, etc. Which brings us to... * Real estate costs mean that fewer people can afford a home office / more of these younger workers share apartments or small homes, so the office is a necessary space to spread out. (plus someone else pays for the A/C and snacks!) * More need for dual-income / more dual-income "professional" workers, combined with small housing, means more need for space just as in point #2 above.