Good morning. Pour one out for the tech workers making $180,000 salaries—they still can’t afford to live in San Francisco.
The New York Times details how the AI boom has created a new tech underclass in the City by the Bay: workers who don’t work at AI firms and are watching their very high cost of living get even higher as their flush neighbors vie for the city’s famously limited housing stock. (SF’s median home price in April? More than $1.7 million.)
As it so happens, a similar dynamic is playing out 400 miles to the south, according to the Los Angeles Times, as the already pricey L.A. real estate market prepares to absorb new wealth from the record-breaking SpaceX IPO. (Median home price in so-called Silicon Beach: $1.65 million.)
No wonder all those return-to-office initiatives are failing in California’s tech hubs—no one can afford to live anywhere close to the office.
More tech news follows. —Andrew Nusca
