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Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

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Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#61

Post by roymurdock »

I always see articles like this and I wonder...who is winning here?

I'm waiting for an article to break out the stats on who owns which property in these types of areas. What % of housing is owned by the government, foreign investors, domestic investors, institutional investors, real-estate holding companies, and the actual inhabitants of the property?

For all we know, the whole story could just be that tech companies are hiring some kids from ivy leagues and well-off families that are just paying rent back to their parents, who somehow or other own shares of the SF property market. Or that a lot of rent money is flowing to foreign investors, as is the case in NY and London.

So while it's interesting to see who is losing and by how much, what I'd really like to know is - who are the winners? Where is the money flowing?

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#62

Post by serge2k »

vessenes wrote: post #12
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #4

That's ok. When Airbnb, Square, and Stripe IPO in 12-36 months, all of the people currently flooding into SF to work for them will surely be able to sell their pre-IPO shares to ... Well, I don't know, honestly. I doubt that employee #1000 at Square would even be able to pay the down payment on a SF condo with their earnings. Also, just FYI: Seattle isn't that much cheaper than SF, the people are way meaner, traffic…

Seattle is way, way cheaper, the people seem nice to me, and we've had like 9 months of sun, so much so that we were declared officially in drought. Just saying. Might not be Seattle that's the problem. As to traffic, I commute via boat, which is rad, since there are dolphins and orcas sometimes. Seriously!

It smells there too.

And roving gangs will steal your teeth

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#63

Post by zrail »

callmeed wrote: post #48
nullrouted wrote: post #2

Which is silly....honestly companies need to start opening offices in more affordable areas. Colorado (Blouder, Denver, The Springs), Texas (Austin, San Antonio), Missouri (Kansas City, Saint Louis)....there are so many places you can put your employees that saves them money as well as your company a lot of money not only in Salaries because you'll be able to employees less but your rent/power/etc.

They are ... for their non-engineering employees (Lyft in Nashville is the most recent example). But for engineering talent, it doesn't work. I don't know the exact reason but it seems to be some combination of the ability to poach from each other, herd mentality, and the concentration of VC money. Take a look at the remote engineering jobs on WWR. Most of them aren't in SF. To me that screams "We opened an office in…

To me that screams "companies that choose to locate in SF refuse to hire remotely".

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#64

Post by dijit »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #38

I love these high salaries. My thought is to find a job in SF, live there temporarily for 3-6 months, then become remote and move back to my real home on the east coast. Is that feasible? Aren't these kinds of companies pretty comfortable these days with video conferencing, IM, screen sharing etc.?

In my experience, no, most people assume you're not working if they can't see you working..

I'm a sysadmin, I could do my job anywhere with stable power and a low latency internet connection- but people insist on sticking me in a room with 80+ people so they can observe my work.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#65

Post by justaburner2015 »

JDiculous wrote: post #9

I have no interest in moving to SF mostly because of the rent. Spending 33%+ of your paycheck on rent is absurd. I'd rather get a remote job and live somewhere cheap enough to where I could potentially put a down payment on my own place.

The nicest, most expensive 1 bedroom apartment I can find in $my_medium_sized_city is $1200/mo. Brand new, great view, walking distance to everything...I don't even own a car anymore.

Any kind of six figures goes very, very far if you are willing to be away from the center of the universe. If living in SF to work at a startup with options is speculating in penny stocks, living in a second or third tier city and squirrelling away a nice chunk from $120k a year is buying bonds. Lower variance, lower maximum rate of return.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#66

Post by slg »

I certainly think rising housing costs are a problem, but is no one going to comment on the fact that this company put together a list that just so happens to put them in a very favorable light against companies they are competing with for talent? We probably shouldn't just accept RadPad's statement as fact that RadPad's employees are much better off than other startup employee even though they are paid less. I would be very interested in seeing the actual raw data that includes companies not listed here and includes other costs besides housing (e.g. transportation costs are higher in LA due to a worse public transit system).

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#67

Post by link_108 »

whalesalad wrote: post #7

This is not surprising at all. We keep complaining about it here and elsewhere but it's not going to change any time soon. The more people flock to SF the worse it will become. When I left SF my studio "jr. one-bedroom" in SOMA was $3100 a month. I'd walk or muni to work by the ballpark and usually saw at least one person smoking meth, shooting up heroin, or pissing on the street. I pay less than half of that now for…

A few questions if you don't mind. What percent of your after tax income was rent? Are you making the same salary in Michigan? And what is the percent of your after tax income is rent now? Thanks! I would love to work remote / in a cheaper location, but salary decrease is worrying me.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#68

Post by toomuchtodo »

shkkmo wrote: post #25
suryon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is they explicitly had to create something like Bay Area. They needed the engineers to be @ place. And the same can happen anywhere if you recreate the Bay Area. Solution: remote work Honestly...160k salaries for some sw roles are silly. But there is need for them because the costs of living are so high. That's plain bs.

Solution: Concentrate your tech workers in a area that isn't hostile to expanding the housing supply when needed.

Which narrows it down to Las Vegas, and Las Vegas is hell on Earth.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#69

Post by rco8786 »

steven2012 wrote: post #36

Most people don't live by themselves in a 1 bedroom. They usually live 2+ people per room, so that they can afford it. For example, a 2 br apt might have 5 people living there, two couples and then one living in the living room. That's how they can afford the $5000/month rent.

That's not at all common. In fact I know 0 households that operate like this.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#70

Post by yazaddaruvala »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #16
vessenes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is way, way cheaper, the people seem nice to me, and we've had like 9 months of sun, so much so that we were declared officially in drought. Just saying. Might not be Seattle that's the problem. As to traffic, I commute via boat, which is rad, since there are dolphins and orcas sometimes. Seriously!

ssh! You're not supposed to tell!

Agreed! Seattle is awesome, but please don't move here!
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