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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?

#251

Post by bcheung »

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.

I was living in LA for a while (5 years). I got a job as a photographer at a modeling agency. Pay was crap so I tried doing more programming work but most of the work wasn't very innovative and really boring compared to Silicon Valley so I moved back to the bay area where I'm originally from.

Going from being surrounded by models all day to living in Man Jose is quite the difference. Wish I could still be there.

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

#252

Post by lucidrains »

suyash wrote: post #228
diiq wrote: post #205

Consider Michigan: both Detroit and Grand Rapids are affordable, tech-friendly, and pleasant to be in.

+1 for Detroit. Low cost of living, downtown life is happening and lot's of startup and co-working spaces doing well.

Yes, Detroit is awesome, please move there

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

#253

Post by toephu2 »

rmac wrote: post #220
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

All of it up to 100k is exempt, it's called the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and it goes up every year w/ inflation. https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Fore...

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

#254

Post by _kyran »

kaishiro wrote: post #110

I'm from the US, down here in Melbourne, via Shanghai, via Boston, via NY. Had no idea what a vibrant tech scene they had on my way down. Envato, Fastmail, and Atlassian give the city some cachet. I contract primarily with US agencies, and if that's the case you just need to set the tone early on with regard to availability. Neat city though.

Redbubble, 99designs, BugHerd and Flippa are some other international products/companies that come to mind.

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

#255

Post by smarinov »

gravypod wrote: post #179
dpc_pw wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poland is UE&VAT.

But Poland's local economy is so cheap that I don't even count that as a factor. There are few comfortable places to live where you can buy bread for .30 USD a loaf, and Poland is one of them. I'm also Russian and a lot of Polish food looks familiar to me. That's why it's a in my top three.

Biased, but try Bulgaria. IMHO currently only Bucharest can (somewhat) compete as a SW/startup hub in the region. HW is generally weak throughout the Balkans, though.

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

#256

Post by debaserab2 »

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.

Plenty of great places to live in MN, Sotuh Minneapolis is only one. St Paul (downtown) is fantastic, northeast is booming - even living downtown is a viable option on a developers salary.

Certain suburbs are pretty yuppie, but definitely not all. Really depends on your living needs.

Source: MN native and moved once per year for 10 years straight.

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

#257

Post by el_benhameen »

luckydude wrote: post #181
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…

Moved to Mountain View in 1987, then to SF about a year later, then to the Santa Cruz mountains about 10 years ago. My wife and I were in tech that whole time (me: SCO, Sun, SGI, Cobalt, briefly at Google, then BitMover). Neither of us enjoy going to Mountain View any more. It's the worst parts of a big city (crowded, traffic, parking, expensive housing) and the worst part of the suburbs. And there is a lot of snobbe…

How's housing up there? I went to school at the UC and have always dreamed about moving back.

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

#258

Post by jonah »

solipsism wrote: post #104
ArtDev wrote: post #11

Bend, Oregon. Direct flights to and from West Coast hubs. Active startup scene. https://youtube.com/watch?v=KxhA2jopebQ Bend has already been "discovered". However, there is still affordable housing and you can't beat the weather, beer scene and the outdoors here. If you want to check it out, you can stay in my awesome big house when we are traveling: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7497695

Since this is getting a bit of a response... anyone in Bend living there with small kids? We are in Oregon and are attracted to Bend, but the fact that it's so isolated (far from major hospital systems, for example, which we unfortunately have to take advantage of more than we'd like) makes us hesitant. Also, we bounce between museums and acquariums and childrens' museums on the coast, Portland, Salem, Eugene, etc, q…

I have a friend in tech with small kids in Bend. Email me and I'll connect you two if you'd like.

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

#259

Post by klean92 »

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.

SLC is 45 minutes away from some of the best ski resorts on the planet: Alta, Snowbird, Deer Valley, Park City... If you like skiing, it counts as outdoors!!

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

#260

Post by el_benhameen »

whoa-duder wrote: post #171
mikekij wrote: post #108

San Diego is awesome. The cost of living is probably 30% less than the bay area (I rent a 4 bedroom single family house for $2495), I live 3 miles from the beach, and there are a fair number of tech companies in the area, focusing primarily on healthcare and defense. And I love the outdoor activity opportunities. Direct flights to SFO are about $140 round trip, or less.

San Diego is cool, but I don't agree with the "fair number of tech companies". I think there are very limited opportunities and a lot behind-the-curve thinking in San Diego tech.

Out of curiosity, what sort of behind-the-curve ideas have you seen?
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