My auto mechanic lives right next to my parents, but has slightly more expensive home. My dad is a mathematician, my mom is a software engineers and this is all in Silicon Valley. Yes, they're in Almaden and not in Menlo/Atherton.
A rank-and-file software engineer working on say business applications or relatively non-specialized software can still afford a home in Fremont (even less expensive).
If you want to buy a home in the 280/101 corridor or in Manhattan, yes, you need to do something different. Don't expect to have a 98-99th percentile income without being at 99th percentile in your profession (but again, doable for a Staff Engineer at Google, or someone who joined a relatively safe-bet pre-IPO startup like Facebook).
A rank-and-file software engineer working on say business applications or relatively non-specialized software can still afford a home in Fremont (even less expensive).
If you want to buy a home in the 280/101 corridor or in Manhattan, yes, you need to do something different. Don't expect to have a 98-99th percentile income without being at 99th percentile in your profession (but again, doable for a Staff Engineer at Google, or someone who joined a relatively safe-bet pre-IPO startup like Facebook).