The average tech worker has not been able to afford a house in SV for at least a decade now. So by this definition, the average tech worker in SV is lower class.
> I'm concerned that homeownership and retiring locally are luxuries now.
I don't know about retiring, but home ownership is certainly still widely possible outside of SF, LA, and the other usual suspects.
> We don't need to jeer at people for being able to afford roots in their local communities.
If it's any comfort, I don't think the majority of residents of SF/Bay currently were born and raised there. More likely, they moved there for work. How many people were actually born and raised in places like Palo Alto, MTV, or even SF a generation ago?
Remember, MTV before the tech boom was a rather sleepy little suburb...