ANNUAL
BUSINESS
REVIEW
BY ANY
AND ALL
MEASURES
June/July 2019 57
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOAN MARCUS
based on economic success, 2018
was yet another stellar season for
Silicon Valley. New venture capital
investments hit an all-time dizzying
high of $50 billion in the Valley
and San Francisco, an astronomical
figure including 81 “megadeals”
of $100 million or more. The average
annual income reached the
$140,000 level for the first time
ever, well over double the $59,000
for the nation as a whole.
The region’s 36,000 new jobs
added between June 2017 and the
same month last year dropped the
unemployment rate to 2.3 percent—
considered full employment.
These notable numbers, drawn
from the most recent edition of the
Silicon Valley Index, compiled annually
since 1995 by Joint Venture
Silicon Valley, seem to add up to
unalloyed success.
For the Valley’s many “haves,”
the good times continue to roll.
Russell Hancock, Joint Venture’s
president and CEO succinctly
summed things up: “We live in a
rarified place, a high-octane region
with lots of prosperity.”
But Hancock is well-aware that
the region’s burgeoning wealth has
brought with it an imbalance in
earnings that widens the gap between
middle class residents and
the Valley’s much more affluent
denizens. A troubling new trend has
caught his attention this year: the
rising exodus of people—many of
modest income, but even some tech
employees—increasingly priced out
of the market. The median house
price in Santa Clara County is now
$1.1 million and it is $3.1 million
in Palo Alto. The average apartment
rent is $2,730 per month in San
Jose and $3,800 in Palo Alto.