Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to? • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by tremendo » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 11:56 PM UTC

Chlorus wrote: post #132

jseliger wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You kid. Sometimes I feel there must be something wrong with me, as I find downtown Phoenix very walkable and even pretty, but often it seems I'm the only one, and I don't mean when it's scorching hot outside, even now when the weather has been fabulous for weeks, I hardly find anyone out. Except when there's some event (conventions, sports, etc).

As for the GP comment about "traditional values", that can be true for parts of the valley, but others are more progressive (eg. Tempe), and the Sheriff makes national news with his tough-guy persona but I don't think that should deter anyone of any background (I'm hispanic) from considering Phoenix as a good place in which to make a decent living.

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

#162

Post by monksy » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 11:57 PM UTC

mjfern wrote: post #117

I'm in Raleigh/Durham, NC. You have great universities here (UNC, Duke, NC State, etc.), nice weather with 4 seasons, blossoming startup culture, Research Triangle Park with Red Hat, SAS, and a variety of other big tech companies with a significant presence, and relatively inexpensive housing! I moved here 3 years ago from the Bay area for quality of life reasons. It's worth a serious look. :)

> You have great universities here (UNC, Duke, NC State, etc.),

That information is only important if the individual has kids, and is within 2+ years of going to either UNC or NCState. (Also, assumes that they'll get in)

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

#163

Post by JshWright » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 11:58 PM UTC

shostack wrote: post #126

jason_slack wrote: post #103

I moved from Cupertino to very upstate New York about 15 months ago. I was able to buy a house, on a lake, forest on all sides of me and I spent less than $200,000 to buy the house, move, furnish a new place and remodel a bit to my liking. No startup scene here. For me, it was the slower pace of life, peace and quiet and more time to work on my personal goals.

I feel like this is the dream, but the reality for many people is that they need to be where the jobs are. For those who are not developers easily able to get remote work, that's a major consideration. What's the job market near you like? How long is the average commute? Those are both major considerations for a lot of folks. (PS I'm not criticizing you--major props for living your dream. I just think that people rea…

"Upstate New York" is a very large area. It would be tough to generalize...

I'm in the Syracuse area (smack in the middle of the state), and the local scene is reasonably unimpressive (I work remotely, as do most of the folks I know in the area). There is a bit of a tech job market 45 minutes east of here in Rome, but that's mostly DoD related work (Rome Labs, etc). An hour and a half south is Ithaca, which is a 'hippy' college-town (Cornell, Ithaca College, and TC3), and has a bit of a startup scene, but again, nothing huge... I'd certainly want to have something lined up before moving.

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

#164

Post by monksy » Wed, Mar 09, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC

shostack wrote: post #139

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 gettin…

>- 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)

Solution don't live along the redline.

The services offered by some of the CPS schools far exceed what you'd get elsewhere.

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

#165

Post by placeybordeaux » Wed, Mar 09, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC

agentgt wrote: post #113

I'm particularly biased as I went to school at GaTech but Atlanta has greatly improved over the last decade or so. It obviously has a completely different social, ethnic and economic diversity than SF does as well as being far far more cost effective. It also has real BBQ as well as being not that far from Miami (my favorite city but not good to live/work in). I would recommend Boston (where I currently live) except…

I love Atlanta. I hope to move back some day. The highway system and white flight tore the city apart when they happened, but there are strong efforts to reconnect the city. Large sections are becoming walkable due to the BeltLine and public transit usage is increasing by the year.

Not to mention the food scene is amazing especially for the price.

Don't write Atlanta off because of misconceptions about what it is like living in the south.

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

#166

Post by vonmoltke » Wed, Mar 09, 2016, 12:02 AM UTC

edwhitesell wrote: post #12

My wife and I lived in Dallas for 5 years, then spent 18 months in the Seattle area before deciding to move back to Dallas. Cost of living was _the_ deciding factor. Tech jobs are very easy to come by and the tech scene in Dallas has been steadily growing over the last 7+ years.

The market is indeed heating up here. Unfortunately it is all web/mobile/enterprise work, which I hate. :( I will probably end up leaving soon as a result.

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

#167

Post by pdeuchler » Wed, Mar 09, 2016, 12:03 AM UTC

bkjelden wrote: post #144

relaunched wrote: post #4

Minneapolis. - Affordable, great culture / food, low unemployment, tons of public companies, rapidly growing startup scene (100 meetup groups)...If you have kids it gets even better. The suburbs are amazing, with great parks, schools, etc. Work life balance is the norm.

I don't live there right now, but Minneapolis-St. Paul is IMO the most underrated city in the country. It has all the things people love about Denver, Portland, Seattle, etc aside from mountains, but it's cold in the winter so people don't even consider it.

"aside from the mountains" is an enormous caveat

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

#168

Post by wpeterson » Wed, Mar 09, 2016, 12:03 AM UTC

650REDHAIR wrote: post #153

wpeterson wrote: post #136

I've been living in Mountain View for several years, but we're moving back to Boston in a month. We can get a house 3x as large for 2/3 the cost and have a much better quality of life.

"and have a much better quality of life" If you like snow.

Much better quality of [everything but weather]

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

#169

Post by baddox » Wed, Mar 09, 2016, 12:03 AM UTC

spillihp wrote: post #8

Want to put in a quick plug for Sacramento. Great quality of life here, generally great weather (sometimes a little hot in summer, but sunny most of the year), affordable housing with rents between $500 and $1,000 (and affordable to buy a house - still good places available for under $300k), nice neighborhoods, great amenities, bars, restaurants, all that. Good access to awesome outdoors. And really easy to get to th…

I've entertained the idea of living in Sacramento, mostly because it's closer to the Sierras than SF. But one question: do you guys have air conditioning? I presume so, if it gets hot. SF's lack of air conditioning is brutal!

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

#170

Post by monksy » Wed, Mar 09, 2016, 12:03 AM UTC

cableshaft wrote: post #50

I've been fighting to stay in Chicago and it's been difficult to get the next job when you're between jobs quickly (lots of recruiters that are really good at wasting your time here), and it's even harder to find advertised salary ranges where you want them to be (tech salaries are really depressed here compared to elsewhere). I've been trying to stay here because it took me forever (as an introvert) to build a stron…

What kind of work are you looking for?

As far as recruiters. There are some recruiting groups that are absolutely garbage. (There is even one named after the redline stop that the Cubs play at which is really shit) You'll just have to weed out the bad ones to find the good ones.