The article seems to be saying that the upper class are the capitalists that have founded successful companies, and the middle class are all the engineers, and the lower class are the rest of society.
This view of class division in an industrialized society is not particularly new. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Player Piano presents this exact scenario (upper class of managers, middle class of engineers, unemployed masses), and it was published in 1952.
I agree that the class division is fairly standard (though the middle class also includes the lawyers, doctors, and other professionals that earn as much or more than engineers), but I guess I don't understand the connection to real estate prices. Who owns all these homes, and buys all these homes? It seems as though it's a bubble that's almost ready to burst, the way that it's been laid out in the article. Or that the wealthy have been buying up huge proportions of properties to turn them into rentals. But there should be numbers that would back up that latter case.
It's both: property prices have bubbled up to the point where many real buyers are investors looking to rent the houses out rather than residential owners.
> It seems as though it's a bubble that's almost ready to burst
It's not a bubble if you already own and keep owning - California Prop 13 prevents the tax man from raising property taxes more than 2% a year.
It's not a bubble if you paid cash, which is majority of real estate purchases in Santa Clara County - unless you choose to go the HELOC route.
It's only a bubble if the buyer is taking out a mortgage to buy the piece of real estate, has very little as far as rainy fund, and needs to have a job to continue making payments.
I don't think Valley real estate prices are that reasonable (and have voted myself out of the market by selling last month), but it's not truly a bubble where you hope the greater fool will come around and buy the stuff from you.
It's a mix. I know a lot of families in SV that have lived there for a long time and have somehow managed to hold on to their houses, working two jobs and just making it. Also, there seem to be quite a few immigrant families from Asia that cram extended families into relatively small homes and get a foothold. There are also plenty of young tech workers that can afford a small house or condo as long as they are willing to take on a lot of debt.
Whenever I visit my in-laws in Palo Alto I enjoy it but I'm always glad to leave it behind again. Every year they add a lane to 101 but they never make it any wider.
This view of class division in an industrialized society is not particularly new. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Player Piano presents this exact scenario (upper class of managers, middle class of engineers, unemployed masses), and it was published in 1952.