And, although the Bay Area is a bit of an outlier because geography, there are plenty of coastal cities where you can get to, not inexpensive by the standards of some regions, but not "insane" unless you absolutely feel you need to live in the central city areas.
One thing that strikes me as odd, as someone not from the US, is that it’s kind of assumed that people are renting? I’d expect that lots of people in SV/Bay area would just buy the place, expensive as that might be.
There are a ton of costs even if you own and have paid off. Aside from my $5K/year property taxes, I've spent probably $50K (likely more) in the past year for costs related to a fire. Also some significant costs for deferred maintenance that had to happen. Some routine plowing and lawn/field maintenance that I could do myself but that would take capital costs (and time). So not a typical couple of years but I've spent well over $100K on my house even though it's paid-off. It's far from free once you've written that last check to a bank.
Of course, modern condos will likely be cheaper but now you're paying HOA fees each month.
That's true too. A lot of people made a lot of money and they can now afford expensive real estate even if they're not making big bucks today absent lifestyle expansion and rational investments.
I'd add that I know a fair number of people who are not necessarily in coastal cities but are adjacent to them that have been exiting. They're mostly somewhat older and pretty comfortable or just have other things going on in their lives. The reality for some is that this isn't a terrible time to exit if you're not really loving things any longer and maybe have some other stuff you'd like to work on--or just retire.
