as an American who worked in Silicon Valley for years, but is not from there, i'd say it's also "captive real estate customers" created by H1-B people.
Seriously. All I needed to do to be filthy rich was move to Silicon Valley back in '97 when I got my MS, then eventually have bought a house or two out there. That's it.
To recap: 1. Move to the Bay Area circa 1997 2. Buy houses 3. Profit enormously in the 2020s
Mind you, I had no idea...
Can you clarify this? You saying non H1B's would not pay the crazy high rents of SV's housing?