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Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

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Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#131

Post by kelukelugames »

shostack wrote: post #125
bkjelden wrote: post #25

Seattle's housing costs are definitely rising but Washington's lack of an income tax is a boon for software engineers. Also, many of the big players in tech will pay within 10-20% of their bay area total comp packages in Seattle, so your take home pay might be almost the same, but of course your dollar is going to go a lot further. I ran some numbers comparing Seattle, Denver, and Minneapolis, and found the descendin…

And how do you cope with the weather and lack of sun? One big draw for me about the Bay Area is the weather. I realized how important nice weather was for me to be happy, so I consider the sunshine tax a sunk cost for my mental and physical well-being.

I grew up in Cupertino and live in Seattle now. I used to live in an apartment with very little natural light, that was awful. Now I live in a condo with tons of light and feel better. Also fly down to Bay Area once a month for work.

Seattle weather isn't that bad. During June through September it's the best in the country. Just gray in the winters, doesn't really rain much.

Some other cons. Negligible start up scene. The Indian and Chinese food stinks. Really homogenous for a coastal city. No NBA team.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#132

Post by Chlorus »

jseliger wrote: post #64
seancoleman wrote: post #27

Phoenix is often not included when discussing tech cities, and I think it's a shame. I've lived here my entire life and have seen the startup and tech scenes evolve and mature having started 2 companies here. Just in the past few years, the number of quality startups and investments have soared and I believe we're at the inflection point that will make Phoenix equitable to SV. We have a low cost of living, affordable…

Phoenix is often not included when discussing tech cities, and I think it's a shame I've spent time in Phoenix. It's the land of enormous roads and parking lots. It's almost impossible to get anywhere without a car. Traffic is horrendous all the time. There is barely a functioning downtown. The urban layout isn't conducive to the density necessary to really sustain light rail. Yes, I know about the line that goes fro…

> and it has few walkable neighborhoods. Who doesn't want to walk in 120 degree heat?

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#133

Post by swozey »

edwhitesell wrote: post #123
swozey wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But the growth (and potential growth) just isn't there." I could pull up hundreds of articles on how Austin is in the top 1-5 in growth in the USA so I'm not sure where you're getting this statement from. Not to mention the growth is blatantly obvious if you live here and deal with traffic, house shopping, or getting brunch on a Sunday. I've been here 6 years and it feels like a completely different city now. But I…

I agree Austin has had great growth. However, compared to Dallas, I don't believe it will sustain. That's just my perspective of what I see/read in the Dallas area and what I read about the Austin area.

If Austin stumbles and our market isn't based on Oil/Banking like Houston/Dallas then I'm not sure that bodes very well for either of those cities, unfortunately.

I think our failure if any will be due to poor public transportation and traffic.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#134

Post by Xcelerate »

HelloMcFly wrote: post #52

Well, I'll give a plug for a different city: Atlanta. My wife and I moved from Atlanta to Seattle a few years back, and while we love the PNW we're definitely looking forward to moving back this summer. Seattle is wonderful, but the traffic has gotten noticeably worse since we've been here, and housing just never worked for us. Atlanta has a lot of opportunity, including in the tech space. It's no Seattle or SF, obvi…

I grew up in the metro Atlanta area (moved there in 1999), and spent four years in downtown Atlanta at Georgia Tech. For someone interested in technology, I think there are better places to live.

- Compared to the downtown area of other cities, Atlanta is a ghost town. You don't see a whole lot of people walking around the city like you do in San Francisco, and to be honest, the downtown area has always been a little boring to me. Most people live in the suburbs, commute into the city in the morning, and then commute back out in the evening. The traffic is absolutely horrible. MARTA (the public transportation system) leaves a lot to be desired. The one time I used it, I was harassed and followed around by people asking for money, so I haven't used it again.

- Not a great food culture. At least when I lived there, the city didn't have any Michelin star restaurants. The south is known for BBQ, but in my opinion the surrounding states have much tastier BBQ.

- Not many tech companies. I think this situation is improving, but it's improving a little too slowly for my liking.

To its credit, Atlanta does have some great qualities:

- Has the world's busiest airport. Europe isn't nearly as far away as it is from the west coast.

- Has all four seasons (if you like that).

- Has the largest number of trees of any major city in the US. Atlanta residents go to extremes to keep the forestry alive; cutting down one tree can cost thousands of dollars.

- Georgia Tech. Lots of research opportunities with GTRI.

- Much lower cost of living (and housing) than other major cities

- Great high schools in the metro area

- Short distance to other interesting cities: Nashville, Birmingham, Huntsville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Charlotte, and Raleigh.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#135

Post by daybreaker2 »

mikestew wrote: post #19
eorge_g wrote: post #3

Here's an HBR article talking about New Orleans push to become a relevant hub and the difficulties of stealing mindshare from "the big three": https://hbr.org/2016/03/what-makes-new-orleans-a-startup-cit...

They're not trying very hard to steal mindshare with only a half dozen jobs (three of which are actually dev jobs) listed on Craigslist. Seattle has page after page of software jobs on CL. I'd totally consider a move to NOLA, but I'm not packing my bags just yet. I mean, seriously, is the article just BS? Even my old stomping grounds of Indianapolis (a.k.a., "Naptown", a.k.a, "you'll be writing code for an insurance…

It's not like its a ton better, but there's at least a few dozen openings here: https://worknola.com/job-search/field_job_function/it-softwa...

Craigslist is barely useful here - even most apartments for rent on there have been rented out weeks or months ago.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#139

Post by shostack »

brianwawok wrote: post #5

I am biased but I liked Chicago. You can get a good house for a decent price. If you want to raise a family though, inside the city schools suck - you have to play a lottery or try to test into a good school or pay for private. That said you won't find startup jobs like SF, a lot of the top paying jobs like NYC are in finance.

Grew up and lived in Chicago most of my life. Moved to the Bay Area in 2013.

Key things to note about Chicago: - The weather is all extremes (extreme cold, extreme hot, extreme humidity) barring a few nice weeks during spring and fall

- The government is beyond horrible (just check this stat on the conviction/jail rate for our mayors[1])

- From what friends who still live there tell me, the crime has only been getting worse, even in nicer neighborhoods

- Traffic is miserable and while there is decent public transit, it all goes to hell during a sports game (try taking the Red Line home during a Cubs game...I'd have to let five trains pass before I could squish myself into a car that was literally packed to the door)

- House prices may be a bit cheaper than the Bay Area, but pay sucks in general. Wages seem to have not climbed much at all in recent years

- Fully agree about the schools. I was fortunate enough to go to Latin, but the lottery is really scary in terms of what you could end up with school-wise

While I have lots of family and friends there, and will always have a place in my heart for Chicago, I didn't realize how much it drained me emotionally and physically to live there until I moved to the Peninsula. Now I'm not constantly watching over my shoulder when I walk around my neighborhood, and I can be outside for most of the year. That last part was huge as I realized that sun is really critical for me to be happy and I wasn't getting enough in Chicago. While my overall Cost of Living is much MUCH higher out here, I'm ultimately happier, and that is what matters. Plus, if I ever were to move back somewhere cheaper, having a high salary is a great point to start negotiating from even if you need to go down a little.

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/illinois-governors-...

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#140

Post by praneshp »

halpme wrote: post #94
eclipxe wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The atmosphere here is, I dunno, toxic. Too many people here size each other up based on where they work and where they live and people are way too obsessed with advancing their careers and chasing higher salaries, more luxurious cars, nicer apartments, etc. Everyone seems to have some sort of inferiority complex if they don't work for the "Big 4". People in Davis/Sac seemed less superficial and it was a lot easier…

Do you actually go out and talk to people? The first thing anyone asks is what you do, followed by which company you work for. Watch people's reactions change depending on the reputation of your company. The whole social scene here is centered around networking, not making meaningful relationships. No one cares if you're a chill person with cool hobbies, but if you work at then you become one more inside connection w…

>> Do you actually go out and talk to people?

I do, and your description only fits a small minority of those I meet when I actually go out.

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