Here's how expensive it is to live in the heart of Silicon Valley
We've long passed the point where the middle class could comfortably afford to live in Silicon Valley, but now, it seems like even relatively high earners are struggling to get by.
Palo Alto, right in the heart of the region, has had it particularly bad: Its planning commissioner recently resigned to move somewhere cheaper, while its mayor has said the city is adding jobs faster than it can handle.
This chart from Statista shows just how astronomical housing prices have become in the former home of Google and Facebook. Citing data from Zillow, it notes how, in the past decade alone, Palo Alto's median home value has risen from $1.17 million to nearly $2.5 million. There's some reason to believe this explosive growth is starting to cool, however. But in a city where studio apartments can go for $1.3 million, that can only mean so much for anyone hoping to live in one of the epicenters of the tech industry.
