Yes, you trade commute for $$, with every 10mins being worth about $7-10k (I think), and every "point" on the school rating being another $10-15k. The heat maps tend to be centered around Google, Apple and Facebook.

I live downtown San Jose, 90min commute/day, and paid $500-$600k less, but the school isn't anywhere near as good.

Parents have different perceptions of value and choose differently.

East Bay was never an option for me - can't commute by bike from there to Mountain View/Sunnyvale.