The Mercury News
. . . "Skyrocketing costs for housing, food and gasoline, along with the area's insufferable gridlock, prompted the four-decade Bay Area resident to seek greener pastures -- 2,000 miles away in Ohio.
" 'It was a struggle in California," Eaton said. "It was a very difficult place to live. ... It's a vicious circle."
"Eaton is far from alone.
"A growing number of Bay Area residents -- besieged by home prices, worsening traffic, high taxes and a generally more expensive cost of living -- believe life would be better just about anywhere else but here.
. . .
The good news for California: . . . "The area's sizzling job market and robust economy have created a domino effect: income spikes for highly trained workers, more people packing the area's roads, red-hot demand for housing." . . .
But it comes with a caveat. The boom is in higher-paid jobs while the middle class is withering:
"The region's middle class has shrunk, while the numbers of lower-income and higher-income households has grown," the report stated. Silicon Valley, for the purposes of the study, consists of Santa Clara County, San Mateo County and San Francisco."