My previous employer was a division of a company that was basically created by buying pieces of other companies. My division had been operating on the SF Peninsula since the 1930s. Some 3 1/2 years ago they decided that our division would be closed down and split up between a division in SoCal and a division in Pennsylvania. The reason was that housing prices in the SF Bay Area are so high that they could not recruit new college graduates. "You'll have to live two hours away and will never be able to afford a house nearby," was not a compelling recruitment message, evidently.