In 2024, professionals from the IT industry earned the highest wages in California, Silicon Valley, with an average of nearly 131 thousand U.S. dollars. Other leading states in terms of highest average salary included Baltimore/Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and New York. Overall, tech salaries in Silicon Valley saw a seven percentage point decrease in average compensation compared to the previous year, while the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area saw a growth in average compensation by nearly six percentage points compared to 2023.

The San Francisco Bay Region, not surprisingly, has some of the least affordable housing in the country – both in absolute terms, and in terms relative to income. In San Francisco proper, the median home value is $800,000 with a median income of $81,000, giving a price-to-income ratio of nearly 10 to 1. In Marin County, the median home value is $815,000 with a median income of $93,000. This ratio is 8.8 times the median income of the county. In Silicon Valley, housing is still pricey, but many people are able to make up for it with higher incomes: San Mateo County has a ratio of 8.3, and Santa Clara County has a ratio of 7.3.