> If they were actually top talent, they wouldn't need to move there to get what they want
This may be true now, but it has not been that way for all of the last 15 years. Top talent was moving here for at least a decade because it was the epicenter of tech, and the vast majority of them aren’t going anywhere.
SF has many very well documented problems that I’ve definitely done plenty of ranting about. But SF still has a lot going for it, and it does not make up the entirety of the Bay Area. Aside from the near perfect weather, you have easy access to an unbeatable amount of natural beauty. Yeah, maybe you could get a big, comfortable house in Texas for a fraction what you could buy here, but then what?
> Yeah, maybe you could get a big, comfortable house
You must have never dealt with the pains of maintaining a house. I wouldn't call it comfortable because of all the crap that goes wrong and you constantly have to deal with.
Speaking of which, that reminds me of something relevant here: One thing California gets right is that they actually enforce their housing regulations. Good luck with that when you rent a house in another state, the landlord refuses to fix the HVAC system, threatens to evict you for complaining about it, and multiple law firms tell you that they can't do anything without proof of a life-threatening illness (despite the laws being spelled out clearly in favor of you).
As far as the weather goes, people need to toughen up. I grew up in Northern Michigan, and almost anything is better than that in the lower 48, and I don't even consider MI weather to be that bad by world standards.
This may be true now, but it has not been that way for all of the last 15 years. Top talent was moving here for at least a decade because it was the epicenter of tech, and the vast majority of them aren’t going anywhere.
SF has many very well documented problems that I’ve definitely done plenty of ranting about. But SF still has a lot going for it, and it does not make up the entirety of the Bay Area. Aside from the near perfect weather, you have easy access to an unbeatable amount of natural beauty. Yeah, maybe you could get a big, comfortable house in Texas for a fraction what you could buy here, but then what?