Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul • Hacker News Board

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#31

Post by rm_-rf_slash » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:39 PM UTC

peatmoss wrote: post #14

I've only lived in Seattle for about 6 years, but have seen / felt a rise in rents over that time. When we moved here, lots of rentals were offering one or two months free rent as a move in special. Now, not so much. Because he was sick of friends moving away, a friend of mine made his rookie run for the city council this past year. He didn't survive the primary, but he had some good ideas about housing that have in…

This is a severely under-appreciated point about housing costs. I live in a college town and rents have been climbing to the degree where the ratio of income to housing expenses is the highest in the nation, leaving New York and San Francisco in the dust.

Every once in a while there will be more proposals to build condos over existing houses or apartments. We've been here before: housing stock is considerably increased while rents around town are given an implicit "go" to be raised across the board. If you're a financially struggling student at an Ivy League school you're not just gonna up and leave cause your rent went up another $100-$200. You're just gonna take out more debt. It doesn't help that aside from campus housing there are like 3 landlords in the whole city

Building housing in a bull market is almost always the right choice, but let's not pretend rents are going to magically fall. Or stop rising. Housing is one of the most elastic goods one can find. Everyone has to sleep somewhere.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#32

Post by seathrowa » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:40 PM UTC

edgyswingset wrote: post #19

I recently moved to the eastside and haven't been experiencing much disdain for being a tech worker. Most of my spare time is spent heading into the cascades to hike the amazing trails, though.

The eastside is less obsessed with preserving an image of itself as a "gritty" place. Parts of the eastside (I'm looking at you, downtown Bellevue) are sort of obsessed with the opposite — shows of ostentatious wealth.

The Cascades have a lot of great hiking and are reason enough to live on the eastside :). If you don't already, get an "America the Beautiful" pass (http://www.nps.gov/findapark/passes.htm) which will get you into National Forest areas as well as National Parks (Rainier, Olympic National Park). And of course the state Discover pass gets you into a few areas (Tiger Mountain is not super wild, but very close).

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#33

Post by breadbox » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:40 PM UTC

nicpottier wrote: post #5

crabasa wrote: post #2

I have lived in Seattle since 2009, first working at Microsoft and now working remotely for a Bay Area company. For people who aren't familiar with the Seattle area, it is cleaved into 2 parts: 1) The city of Seattle or the "west side". This area is increasingly dominated by Amazon, local startups and engineering offices for Bay Area companies like Facebook and Google. 2) The cities to the east of Lake Washington (Re…

I think Capitol Hill is the most glaring change to me in the past 5 years. One of the neatest and most unique neighborhoods in the city, in a way iconic to how Seattle was seen is now filled with brand new condos and multi-use buildings. For god sakes there have been gay-hate crimes on Broadway. Yes, tons of new development has happened in SLU, but that area wasn't much of an established neighborhood to live in befor…

While the changes to Capitol Hill alarm me as well (having lived there for 25 years), there have always been gay hate crimes on Capitol Hill.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#34

Post by seathrowa » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:42 PM UTC

cageface wrote: post #22

geebee wrote: post #7

It's fascinating and sad to read these articles, about some cities struggling with the effects of tech wealth while other cities would see it as an almost unqualified boon. We constantly hear about a desperate shortage of software engineers from tech companies, as well as talk of "six figure" salaries. But the median price for housing in SF is well over a million now, and if you're hoping to have kids and raise a fam…

I haven't lived in the US for almost five years now but if I did come back I'd pick a second-tier city. There's enough remote work now that you can pick any city you want in a US timezone and still make a decent living. I don't see why everyone feels obliged to squeeze into one of three or four insanely overpriced coastal cities in 2015.

For a while, Seattle has been a second tier tech city. Some of us wish it would stay that way (affordable). While rents are on the rise, it's still a far cry from being as ridiculously expensive as SF.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#35

Post by sbilstein » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:43 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #12

> John Criscitello placed posters in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood proclaiming “Welcome! Rich Kids,” and “Wish you weren’t here.” Its hard not to feel angry at people like this. "Rich Kids" really? These "Kids" spent years developing their engineering skills to get to the point where they are now. Are engineers paid a lot? Of course. But we're certainly not in the same category as those who inherit wealth. Most…

Ya, some of us even grew up poor! I know I don't speak for all engineers (and we still could do better about this) but when I was in high school the easiest route to money for college was STEM scholarships and gov't funding for STEM degrees. That's what got me a CS degree.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#36

Post by jonknee » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:45 PM UTC

edgyswingset wrote: post #19

I recently moved to the eastside and haven't been experiencing much disdain for being a tech worker. Most of my spare time is spent heading into the cascades to hike the amazing trails, though.

My take on the East Side (coming from a Seattle POV) is the perception is that it's full of well off NIMBYs who work for Microsoft and that the area never had any culture to lose. Amazon's move into the city has changed things that were there for decades. I'm new to Seattle though so technically part of the "problem".

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#37

Post by amyjess » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:47 PM UTC

alain94040 wrote: post #16

geebee wrote: post #7

It's fascinating and sad to read these articles, about some cities struggling with the effects of tech wealth while other cities would see it as an almost unqualified boon. We constantly hear about a desperate shortage of software engineers from tech companies, as well as talk of "six figure" salaries. But the median price for housing in SF is well over a million now, and if you're hoping to have kids and raise a fam…

housing in SF is well over a million now, and if you're hoping to have kids and raise a family Why isn't a nice condo in Mountain View for $700K good enough? 1,300 sq.ft is plenty of space to live. For instance http://www.mlslistings.com/property/ml81517677/1945-mount-ve...

Because you can get a nice house with almost 2000 sq. ft. in Texas for under $300k [0]. We're not talking about somewhere out in the country or in some distant exurb, either: I'm talking about housing prices I just looked up in a nice neighborhood within the City of Dallas. It's a safe neighborhood with good schools (speaking from personal experience: I grew up in that exact neighborhood).

Also, I currently rent a 1500 sq. ft. townhouse in Dallas for $1220/month. There's no way I'd be able to get anything nearly that nice in the Bay Area.

[0] http://www.dallasrealestate-homes.com/Dallas%20Subdivisions/...

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#38

Post by geebee » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:49 PM UTC

alain94040 wrote: post #16

geebee wrote: post #7

It's fascinating and sad to read these articles, about some cities struggling with the effects of tech wealth while other cities would see it as an almost unqualified boon. We constantly hear about a desperate shortage of software engineers from tech companies, as well as talk of "six figure" salaries. But the median price for housing in SF is well over a million now, and if you're hoping to have kids and raise a fam…

housing in SF is well over a million now, and if you're hoping to have kids and raise a family Why isn't a nice condo in Mountain View for $700K good enough? 1,300 sq.ft is plenty of space to live. For instance http://www.mlslistings.com/property/ml81517677/1945-mount-ve...

It's best to go by sales price rather than asking price, since very low pricing to start bidding wars is a common real estate strategy in the bay area.

I went to zillow and looked up actual sales prices for condos/townhouses in mountain view for the last six months, with more than 1,250 square feet of living space.

From my search of actual sales prices rather than listing prices, the cost of a 1,250+ sq ft condo in Mountain View ranges from $910,000 to $1.08 million.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#39

Post by refurb » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:50 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #12

> John Criscitello placed posters in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood proclaiming “Welcome! Rich Kids,” and “Wish you weren’t here.” Its hard not to feel angry at people like this. "Rich Kids" really? These "Kids" spent years developing their engineering skills to get to the point where they are now. Are engineers paid a lot? Of course. But we're certainly not in the same category as those who inherit wealth. Most…

But we're certainly not in the same category as those who inherit wealth.

Ahhh... it's the old, I'm not rich! The rich are people that make more than me!

By that definition, almost nobody is rich.

Re: Seattle, in Midst of Tech Boom, Tries to Keep Its Soul

#40

Post by washedup » Thu, Oct 08, 2015, 4:51 PM UTC

mattress wrote: post #9

Took a job in Bellevue in April and moved from Philadelphia to Seattle. So far it's a been an interesting experience. I've encountered many people hostile to software engineers in general. A bunch of people immediately ask if I work for Amazon with a hint of disdain after I state my occupation. So it hasn't felt super welcoming so far. I get it, even in some neighborhoods in Philadelphia the same thing is happening.…

people always complain about change! especially old people!