Interesting that you bring up Detroit. Detroit once had the highest salaries in the US from the auto industry, and priced out everyone not involved in the auto industry. Then the auto industry crashed.

That's not the only reason Detroit crashed, but it's a contributing factor. The others were racism and "white flight." Detroit sort of got a perfect storm.

If something ever does massively disrupt Silicon Valley, I could see the Bay Area undergoing a nasty crash too. Probably nowhere near as bad as Detroit since it's a prettier place to live and is more diversified, but still ugly.

SV today really doesn't appeal to me because it is nothing but hackers. There are no artists, no hippie bohemian weirdos, no writers. These people can't afford to live there. In fact, I'd say it's even worse. There aren't even many hackers doing truly creative projects outside startups running around looking for funding, because you can't do anything that isn't going to get you that big cash out effect. Not if you want to afford to live there. You also can't easily bootstrap without outside funding, which means you can't own your own stuff. You have to have a financier with deep pockets.

All of that is the fault, primarily, of real estate hyperinflation.