I was in Austin with a realtor. I have kids. I'm not trying to live in an apartment. I want at least a townhouse, if not a single-family home. The commute distances from extremely affordable homes in South Austin to downtown wasn't that bad, but let's keep something in mind: the vast majority of Austin's tech jobs aren't in downtown, they are actually scattered all over the city. The homes I was looking at were 15 minutes from the office.

There isn't a single place in the entire Bay Area that is remotely as affordable. Also, Austin is a buyers city. The rent to home price ratio clearly tilts towards buyer. This is because of the tremendous amount of development upping the supply of new homes for sale, but not for rent.