Housing official in Silicon Valley resigns because she can't afford to live there

Even the lawyer and her software engineer husband can't buy a home in the area due to the intensifying housing crunch that the tech boom has exacerbated

Once Kate Downing and her husband Steve did the math, it was obvious that if they wanted to raise a family, staying in Palo Alto, California, was not an option. Although Steve, 33, works as a software engineer at a nearby Silicon Valley technology company and Kate, 31, is a product attorney at another tech firm, the cost of owning a home near their jobs has simply become too steep for them.

If they wanted to purchase their current house - which they rent with another couple for $6,200 a month total - it would cost $2.7m plus monthly mortgage and tax payments of $12,177, adding up to more than $146,000 a year.