San Diego is attracting tech firms from elsewhere, offering an attractive alternative for startups and established firms as they grow into new markets.

The area benefits from the lure of a growing economy and high quality of life while still remaining less expensive than some of the traditional tech meccas, a recent JLL report notes.

Technology is the top industry for real estate expansion in the U.S., signing nearly 25% of all leases over 20K SF in the past two years, JLL reports. Tech companies consider San Diego because of its educated workforce and the lower cost of rent compared to other California markets, such as San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.

Despite venture capital deals slowing on the national level, those deals continue in San Diego. The city's average venture capital deal size was $11.9M — about the average for deals in Los Angeles.

With these things going for it as a tech market, San Diego could become the next unicorn tech hub for those high-valued startups that are priced out of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, according to JLL.

Sorrento Mesa is known as the city's hottest submarket for tech, according to the JLL report. Tech companies are also entering downtown, Del Mar Heights and the Interstate 15 Corridor.