I myself am a Chicago boy and came out here to Silicon Valley 10 days after undergrad graduation as a CS major circa 35 years ago and never left. Starting salary was $27K a year and rent was $750 a month in Sunnyvale for a better-than-average one bedroom apartment, expensive what with a car payment as well. Really was contemplating going back to Chicago after 2 years, job wasn’t going all that great, MBA school was a drag and really hated the social scene, but didn’t pull the trigger. My situation turned out ok after that. Things have pretty much quadrupled both with starting salary and rent here in Silicon Valley, but to buy a house is just ridiculous out here. Up until the mid-90s you could buy a starter house for $200-300K, now it’s more like $1 mil.