As the average price of a Silicon Valley home hits $500,000 and even cash-rich tech workers are forced into tiny apartments, other, less pricey areas of the US are pitching hard for technology companies to relocate.

Consider a banner advertisement currently running on the main news page of the website of Silicon Valley's biggest newspaper, the San Jose Mercury. It offers a sequence of sentences: "Good job." "Good salary".

Then, flashing to define the tiny space of the banner itself: "Good grief, is that the size of your kitchen?" Impudently, it concludes, "Come to e-country instead. Fairfax county, Virginia."

Some of the distant regions around the State that have longed for high-tech investment might consider a similar gimmick - but with house prices rising faster outside Dublin in recent months, perhaps it's a moot point.