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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?

#211

Post by relaunched »

humbleMouse wrote: post #91
prime09 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 I moved from San Jose to Minneapolis last fall and couldn't be happier.

I am a native of Minneapolis proper and I would say move here to South Minneapolis. The suburbs suck and are absolutely terrible unless upper middle class white bumpkins are your crowd. South Minneapolis and midtown are super cool and you can still buy in before full gentrification kicks in.

The suburbs are more appealing if you have a family. However, if you are single or don't have kids, there is a lot of appeal to being in places like Uptown, North Loop, etc.

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

#212

Post by [deleted] »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #210
Apocryphon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the consideration! Right now I'm mostly curious than actually planning on moving anytime soon, so I was asking for general recommendations. I'm in mobile development and I'm a single twenty-something male. I think generally any city with a mature enough software industry that has need for app developers would be acceptable. For the sort of "hacker environment", it's good if there are meetups/local dev scen…

Salt Lake City has 1, 2, and 3. 4, not so much.

[deleted]

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

#213

Post by beachstartup »

sjg007 wrote: post #105
halpme wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I lived in LA and the first thing you learn there is to not ask what anyone does because everyone's an actor.

these days everyone in LA is working on some kind of tech-related nonsense. i moved here to get away from all that, and it followed me.

now i just want to go live in the woods with my dog.

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

#214

Post by tezzer »

monksy wrote: post #162
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)

Or if you want to know the area has a source of smart young people who may attract quality employers and/or start their own interesting gigs.

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

#215

Post by shostack »

monksy wrote: post #164
shostack wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 re…

> "Solution don't live along the redline"

That's an easy statement to make that conveniently ignores the fact that the Redline is one of the major transit lines in the city because it goes to where there are a ton of jobs. I was fortunate in that I could also take the Brown line at some points when I lived there, and there are plentiful bus options, but the reality is that when there's a Cubs game, good luck commuting home if you live on the North Side, regardless of where you work.

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

#216

Post by kika »

sheri wrote: post #185
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…

> Is this your own set of insecurities being projected on others? I never got that sense in SV... I am not the OP, but I share his/her views. To the above point, maybe? I used to perceive NY/Wall-Street as all about image, and SF/tech-scene to be much more down-to-earth and friendly. I don't find that anymore. Taking Caltrain, I see people wearing Google/FB/Twitter/XXX t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, bags etc. Compan…

Look, imagine two tungsten balls, 4" in diameter each, at night. One is painted matte black and the other is heated to 2500 degrees Celsius. Which one is more visible? These are two absolutely equal balls and one constitutes exactly 50% of the population :-)

I take Caltrain regularly (I live on Peninsula and work in SF FiDi) and I see these people, but nothing out of ordinary. There're, I believe, 8000 working in FB Menlo Park office. That's a lot of people. And the industry is heated up, so these people are more visible because the temperature is higher. So what, it happened before (2001) and will happen again :-)

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

#218

Post by vogt »

hosh wrote: post #157
shostack wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lived there for a year. I'm living about an hour and a half north of Phoenix, just below the Rim. Sometimes, I miss those dreary storm-grey clouds of the Pacific NW. "Nice weather" is subjective, and it isn't necessarily "sunny". I have a friend who burns badly in any kind of sunlight -- Seattle is where she makes her home. Flagstaff, AZ, oddly, is like a miniature Seattle, though the tech scene isn't as happening.…

Your sentiments about Flagstaff are so funny to me because my wife and I thought the exact same thing as we passed through from TX on the way to Las Vegas. My whole life (originally from New England) I thought Arizona was all desert, so when we wound up in Flagstaff in July to 60 degree rainy weather I was taken aback. I plan on moving there as soon as I wrap up things here in NV.

By the way unfortunately the tech scene being "less happening" is a bit of an understatement. I welcome it for the interim though.

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

#220

Post by rmac »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #189
bazqux2 wrote: post #186

Panama City Panama. Zero tax on foreign income. If you continue contracting for US companies all of your income will be foreign. It makes a huge difference. I paid over 40% in tax in SF. Tons of tech people are doing it as they can more easily work remote and are already competing on a global stage. I've joined a share house of foreign tech workers who all doing the same thing for the same reasons. It is in one of th…

Last time I lived abroad (and you need to live for more than a year) it was basically an $80k deduction. So at $100k you're taxed at $20k. Small clarification but it made a big difference.

this has been 'fixed'. Now, if you make 100k, you're taxed in the 100k bracket but only on 20k (approx)
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