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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?

#41

Post by halpme »

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 went to UC Davis but would frequently visit Sac. It's such a beautiful and laid-back city, and the people are great. SF is only a one hour drive away and Lake Tahoe is relatively close too. I've been living in Mountain View for a couple months and I miss the Davis/Sac area more and more as time goes on. 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 for me to make friends. Also, yeah, the cost of living is so much cheaper. I'm paying $1700 for a tiny studio in MV. Back in Davis I was paying $1400 for a pretty nice 2-bedroom apartment. Meh.

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

#42

Post by ryanSrich »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #34
Balgair wrote: post #26

Make sure to skip Denver. Nothing but stoners and Peyton fans. Terrible place to live.

This is pretty garbage advice. There are a lot of tech companies especially just south of downtown Denver, and a reasonable start up scene in Boulder. I get 20-30% of the quantity of recruiter emails from Denver / Boulder / Ft Collins companies compared to what I used to get in the Bay Area. It's a lot less, to be sure, but still sustainable for a good career. Good meet ups too. There are pockets of stoners especiall…

...I think the parent was being facetious. It's pretty common to "trash" the city you love so no one else moves there.

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

#43

Post by pavel_lishin »

jerf wrote: post #20

As you point out, there's a lot of options; you've only really even scratched the surface. Some guidance on your interests (both professional and recreational/social), skills, and desires would be helpful. I sometimes wonder, do people think that the rule is that you have to post an Ask HN, then you're not allowed to interact? Go ahead, interact! For that matter, if you've got a similar question but you're not the OP…

> I sometimes wonder, do people think that the rule is that you have to post an Ask HN, then you're not allowed to interact? Go ahead, interact!

It's only been an hour; OP could just be taking a lunch break.

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

#44

Post by Cshelton »

chris_va wrote: post #7

We just moved to Seattle from SF. Highly recommended, but as you say more expensive than Portland (still 1/2 the price of the bay area). Cost follows opportunity, and it is harder to find a tech scene in Portland. NYC is a great place to live (have done so), and I would pick it over Seattle (at least for a year or two) if you don't have kids, are young, and can afford it. Chicago is great, less tech than NYC/Seattle,…

I lived in Boulder, I now live in Dallas, which I picked over Austin. Denver is cool to visit...but so meh... I travel for fun a lot anyway, I don't need to live there.

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

#45

Post by hkmurakami »

peterarmstrong wrote: post #28

I've worked remotely for Silicon Valley companies from Victoria, Canada, and it's great, even though the startup scene is just in its infancy. Same time zone, housing isn't insane like the valley or like Vancouver, beautiful climate, good university, etc. The largest drawback is that once you're ready to do your own startup, VCs are all "Victoria? WTF? You can't build a real company there...", so you're stuck bootstr…

Visited Victoria last year for the first time and I loved it.

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

#46

Post by jerf »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #43
jerf wrote: post #20

As you point out, there's a lot of options; you've only really even scratched the surface. Some guidance on your interests (both professional and recreational/social), skills, and desires would be helpful. I sometimes wonder, do people think that the rule is that you have to post an Ask HN, then you're not allowed to interact? Go ahead, interact! For that matter, if you've got a similar question but you're not the OP…

> I sometimes wonder, do people think that the rule is that you have to post an Ask HN, then you're not allowed to interact? Go ahead, interact! It's only been an hour; OP could just be taking a lunch break.

Indeed. It just seems to be the pattern, both here and on Reddit... I'm actually surprised when the poster engages, because it's that rare.

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

#47

Post by edwhitesell »

Cshelton wrote: post #38
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.

+1 for Dallas. I would consider Dallas over Austin, just from the sheer growth and potential Dallas has. The tech/startup scene has exploded over the last 3 years. No state income tax, low cost of living. Dallas also has the highest growth percentage in the nation, it was 2nd behind Houston but the oil market killed that real quick, so Dallas is on top. Literally all of my friends are from Seattle, Denver, California…

I completely agree with your thoughts on Austin. To me, Austin has more of a "Portland" vibe. But the growth (and potential growth) just isn't there. It is in Dallas.

I guess I also should have noted in my first comment, prior to Dallas, we lived in Boston. There was a fair amount of tech jobs there, but nothing really "new". The tech scene never really seemed very strong either. Unless, maybe, you were part of the student tech scene with MIT/Cambridge.

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

#48

Post by rrival »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #34
Balgair wrote: post #26

Make sure to skip Denver. Nothing but stoners and Peyton fans. Terrible place to live.

This is pretty garbage advice. There are a lot of tech companies especially just south of downtown Denver, and a reasonable start up scene in Boulder. I get 20-30% of the quantity of recruiter emails from Denver / Boulder / Ft Collins companies compared to what I used to get in the Bay Area. It's a lot less, to be sure, but still sustainable for a good career. Good meet ups too. There are pockets of stoners especiall…

He's kidding... You must not live in CO? It's the line out here. Anti-town building, too many people are moving here already because it's so great, so spread the word that it's buried in snow, full of potheads and hippies. These are not the towns your looking for. Move along, move along.

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

#49

Post by mountaineer »

chris_va wrote: post #7

We just moved to Seattle from SF. Highly recommended, but as you say more expensive than Portland (still 1/2 the price of the bay area). Cost follows opportunity, and it is harder to find a tech scene in Portland. NYC is a great place to live (have done so), and I would pick it over Seattle (at least for a year or two) if you don't have kids, are young, and can afford it. Chicago is great, less tech than NYC/Seattle,…

+1 on Calagator, lots of activity in Portland. Also check out the slack community[1].

[1] https://pdx-startups-slack.herokuapp.com/

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

#50

Post by cableshaft »

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 strong social circle and those people support me a lot in my creative endeavors, so I'm disinclined to leave and have to start all over again elsewhere.

The food here is excellent, though. With the exception of seafood (which tastes fine, but not nearly as fresh as on the Bay), just about every cuisine you can think of has a quality representative or two nearby (even in the suburbs, where I live).

The suburbs also has plenty of forest preserves to explore, if you're into hiking and trees (which I am also).

Housing prices are reasonable, depending on where you look. You can get a good home for ~$200k-230k in the suburbs if you keep an eye on the market and you're quick to make an offer.

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