Comment by mike_d

The problem is not the tech people, it is the boomers who lived here before us. They have manipulated the system, voted down every attempt to build more housing, and leveraged their good luck to engage in rent seeking and siphon off half of the "ridiculous tech salaries."

My old landlords had average non-tech jobs in the 80s, bought a house for under 100k. At some point they used it to buy a second house, and another, and another. Now they own 30+ houses and rent each for 4-7k/mo.

Old next door neighbor's house was owned by her dad, he was a public works employee and owns 6 houses in the bay area now.

Neighbors on the other side were an older couple with adult kids and multiple rental properties in Fremont. They bought a house for their adult son outright before we moved.