>But in many places (Bay Area) it seems like a lot of people are benefiting from the tech boom, enough that they do drive up prices. But how can such a small pe

>But in many places (Bay Area) it seems like a lot of people are benefiting from the tech boom, enough that they do drive up prices. But how can such a small percentage of the population (what percentage of the population in the Bay Area works in tech?) affect things so universally? With housing it's because they purchase it as an investment, not as a place to live in. With treasuries earning almost nothing, reliable stores of wealth are few and far betwen. That makes housing popular. It wouldn't be so bad if wealth inequality wasn't quite so extreme.