Tech’s embrace of remote work sends San Francisco rents plunging

A giant digital sign at Facebook’s corporate headquarters campus in Menlo Park, California. The San Francisco Bay Area is headquarters for some of the first companies to switch to working from home, while giants such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Slack Technologies Inc are embracing it for the long run. With nothing tethering them to the office, many workers are relocating to Bay Area suburbs or leaving the state altogether. — AFP

America’s priciest apartment-rental market suddenly has more bargains.

Rents for a San Francisco one-bedroom apartment have dropped about 12% from this time last year, a record monthly decline for the city, according to a report from listing site Zumper. Silicon Valley hubs such as Mountain View and Palo Alto also saw rents plunge – a sign residents of the tech-heavy region are taking advantage of remote work arrangements to flee to cheaper areas.