Compared with other major tech submarkets nationwide, South Lake Union's rent growth has been fairly modest, comparing Q2 2014 with Q2 2016, according to CBRE's recently released 2016 Tech-Thirty report. Rents were up about 14% for the two-year period, a figure easily topped by the likes of University City in Philly, East Cambridge in Massachusetts, and Palo Alto, whose rental growth all came in over 20%.

Very expensive submarkets are spurring some tech firms to head elsewhere for cheaper rents. Another takeaway in the report about the tech industry in Seattle: the region is at full employment, meaning that in-migration is necessary to kept filling tech jobs. Also, housing costs are a wild card when it comes to attracting new tech talent, since such costs are rising faster in Seattle than most markets. Even so, tech companies in other parts of the country tend to have engineering offices in Seattle.