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One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

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Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#131

Please don't come to Austin. I moved from SF to Austin a little over two years ago, and I want to make it clear that it's terrible. The food is bad, the people are lame, and all the musicians are out of tune. I hear Chicago is where it's at, so please go there. Or New York. Or anywhere else, really. Just don't come to Austin.

Don't go to Austin. Come to Boise, Idaho instead.

https://www.tsheets.com/living-in-boise/

(I don't work for T-Sheets but have friends that do.)

We have a great high tech community that is searching hard for more engineers. Great outdoor activities for those few minutes you want to spend away from your keyboard. Low traffic, good wages, great biking environment, decent weather.

Move to Boise!

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#132
Please don't come to New York. I moved from Amherst to New York a little over four years ago, and I want to make it clear that it's terrible. The food is bad, the people are lame, and all the musicians are out of tune. I hear Chicago is where it's at, so please go there. Or Seattle. Or anywhere else, really. Just don't come to New York.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#133
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I'm sure the fact that there's an increasing trend of empty Chinese investment properties isn't helping." This. This. This. A couple of years ago, I found myself utterly shocked by the price of homes in San Francisco. In a fit of frustration, I fired off a few emails a few random real estate firms in SF, asking one simple question: "Who the BLEEP can afford these homes?" You see, I was frustrated. I have a great j…

What would make it a less interesting investment is if there were a credible threat to add enough supply to devalue it. That's generally how markets keep prices regulated: if they go up enough, more people jump in to producing the good. That mechanism is severely broken in the Bay Area, among other popular places in the US.

That depends on a lot of factors. Manhattan is an example of a building boom not necessarily increasing supply or lowering prices: a lot of the building boom involved demolition of older, cheaper apartment buildings that were subdivided into small units, to be replaced with newer, higher-end apartment units subdivided into larger units. Net square footage increased, but square footage isn't identical to number of housing units. Which is why over the past 100 years Manhattan has gone from having cheap housing and 2.3 million people, to having expensive housing and 1.6 million people.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#135
post #30

Please don't come to Austin. I moved from SF to Austin a little over two years ago, and I want to make it clear that it's terrible. The food is bad, the people are lame, and all the musicians are out of tune. I hear Chicago is where it's at, so please go there. Or New York. Or anywhere else, really. Just don't come to Austin.

Not sure if Portland stole Austin's drawbridge syndrome like Keep Portland Weird, but I see the same attitude here. Portland is great, but it is changing. Housing is growing fast, transportation is not keeping up with the growth and the city is not doing enough to solve the homeless problem. Conversely, amazing food, everything you want in a metro but not the size of NY, excellent outdoor options and a growing tech s…

There's a lot of "up and coming" cities in the U.S., I'm guessing there must be a massive exodus from all of the traditoinal "big" cities like Chicago and Boston. Add to the list:

* Nashville

* Pittsburg

* Charlotte

* Orlando

* San Jose (at least in terms of population, not sure about industry)

It's an interesting phenomenon given how in the developing world there are more super large cities, are we going the opposite direction?

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#136
post #114
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would make it a less interesting investment is if there were a credible threat to add enough supply to devalue it. That's generally how markets keep prices regulated: if they go up enough, more people jump in to producing the good. That mechanism is severely broken in the Bay Area, among other popular places in the US.

Alternatively, repealing Prop 13, so that property taxes rise with the value. Or increasing property taxes as you get more homes. Both of these would decrease housing prices significantly.

Given that the supply of land cannot be increased (the huge omission in GP's argument), repealing Prop 13 is indeed a large part of the solution.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#137
post #82

Please don't come to Austin. I moved from SF to Austin a little over two years ago, and I want to make it clear that it's terrible. The food is bad, the people are lame, and all the musicians are out of tune. I hear Chicago is where it's at, so please go there. Or New York. Or anywhere else, really. Just don't come to Austin.

I'm going to clarify that I'm not picking on you, but I loathe this attitude. I see it in Denver constantly. I moved here, but now we're full up. Ironically, it mostly comes from people that are transplants themselves. It's rather elitist to tell people where they can and can't live especially with the "forget you, I got mine" dynamic going on from the transplants themselves.

I think that the OP's intent at humor just wooshed right by you. The OP author was poking fun at the situation, by making up things about Austin so that people don't rush there like they did San Francisco.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#138

What's the number of people that want to move to the Bay Area though?

I'm thinking about moving to either Bay Area or Los Angeles with a family, from Prague. I have a 7 years old kid. I am not sure if that's the right thing. We're doing it for the climate. It's really difficult to find a warm English-speaking country where you won't be culturally isolated from the rest of the world. I can work pretty much from anywhere, however I am not a magnate. Things definitely to be missed: - Prag…

Portugal has a lot to recommend it.

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#139
post #5

I'm sure the fact that there's an increasing trend of empty Chinese investment properties isn't helping. I grew up in Cupertino, and when I visit my parents there, I'm rather shocked at how downhill the neighborhood has gone in parts. It's crazy that these old 70's tract homes go for 1.5 million. Even more insane is that they're bought and then left empty to go downhill. Literally broken windows and paint falling off…

> "I'm sure the fact that there's an increasing trend of empty Chinese investment properties isn't helping." This. This. This. A couple of years ago, I found myself utterly shocked by the price of homes in San Francisco. In a fit of frustration, I fired off a few emails a few random real estate firms in SF, asking one simple question: "Who the BLEEP can afford these homes?" You see, I was frustrated. I have a great j…

Unused, speculative, investments.

As I understand it, it's not really speculative, but rather is a way around China's currency controls. It's allegedly quite difficult, if you're Chinese, to convert holdings into USD or other currencies and get that money out of the country, and investing in foreign real estate is apparently a popular way to work around that

Re: One-third of SF Bay Area residents hope to leave soon, poll finds

#140

Please don't come to Austin. I moved from SF to Austin a little over two years ago, and I want to make it clear that it's terrible. The food is bad, the people are lame, and all the musicians are out of tune. I hear Chicago is where it's at, so please go there. Or New York. Or anywhere else, really. Just don't come to Austin.

Come to Chattanooga. We have municipal fiber, cheap housing and no income tax. Our state government is so conservative businesses can get away with pretty much anything, and our city government is so liberal there are funds and grants for just about everything. As long as you can get over the occasional rebel flag bumper sticker, it's the promise land.
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