Live data from Hacker News

California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

mercurynews.com

211–220 of 313 posts

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#211

Seattle is tempting as a SF resident but I think Seattle tech scene is much more risk-adverse (i.e. AMZN, MSFT employees) and not as entrepreneurially minded as in SF.

Why does that matter to you personally? As an entrepreneur, you want to go where others won't, i.e. less competitive environments.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#213

I have literally never heard anyone cite California taxes as having any contribution on them leaving. The only people I've heard mention 'high California taxes' are people who are explicitly trying to solicit Californians to move to wherever they are ('come to Texas! We have way lower taxes than you!').

As someone not in CA, it's a reason I have no desire to move there.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#214

I have literally never heard anyone cite California taxes as having any contribution on them leaving. The only people I've heard mention 'high California taxes' are people who are explicitly trying to solicit Californians to move to wherever they are ('come to Texas! We have way lower taxes than you!').

For the vast majority of people I think high real estate costs are a much bigger problem than high state taxes. CA state income tax is less than 9.3% of income for most people, a home is probably at least 30%.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#215
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess parent meant geographical. Ocean, bay, mountains, forests, near-deserts, all in close proximity.

Seattle has much the same, with the plus of waterskiing in the middle of the city on Lake Washington. Of course, the boom in prices is affecting Seattle, too.

Yeah, I lived over half my life up there. West coast geography is just what I consider "normal". I don't think I could live in other regions of the country as happily.

I didn't find housing costs to be that far out of whack with the increased salary when I moved to the Bay Area, though.

And I found the soul crushingly bad traffic at the time to be worse in Seattle than in the Bay. My #1 reason was the weather, though. I just couldn't take the lack of sunshine. My mood changed so much when I moved down here. I'm sure it doesn't bother some people, and more power to them. I really miss the northwest when I visit. It reminds me of what I've missed out on, things have changed so much. Then again, I would have missed out on things that happened down here. And I've missed out on everything that happened in Omaha and Denver and...

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#216
post #145

So, "exodus" is used to define a mere outflow of 60K residents ? That is less than 0.05%. Also, this article makes no sense. If California was losing people for the last 22 years, how come it's population went from 29 million in 1990 to 40 million in 2016 ? I hate how none of these "exodus" articles are data centric and explain these two discrepancies. Is the population growth then due to birth rate ? or due to immig…

It's immigration. California has had negative net domestic migration for a while. Population growth in the state is driven by immigration.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#217

Anyone else alarmed that a doctor was leaving because the rent was too high? A doctor is one of the jobs that is expected to pay top dollar in American society. If a doctor can't make it in the Bay Area, who's going to cut your hair, serve your beer, or mow your lawn? If wages don't rise in line with skyrocketing living costs, then the only alternative is a permenantly impoverished underclass. People of the Bay Area:…

Recently took a trip out to the Bay Area, and when I did the back-of-the-napkin calculations, I figured it would actually be cheaper to fly from the Midwest and stay in a hotel every other weekend, than it would be to live there. Really neat place to visit, but I can't understand how anyone in their right mind would live there.

Just like people from the city might say "I can't understand how anyone in their right mind would live in the midwest"

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#218
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with government pensions is that the work of today is paid for with money today and a promise of money in the future for an undeterminable number of years. Many governments have not saved prudently for their future obligations and the result is current taxes going to support past workers, which taxpayers don't appreciate when it gets extreme. In the private sector, pensions have been going away -- I've wo…

Ok, so my ignorance was that when the parents said 'pension' they didn't say that they really meant 'defined benefit pensions'. A 401k and other defined contribution pensions are still a pension.

In colloquial American English "pension" nearly always means defined benefits.

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Long Island, NY and Boca Raton, FL I gotta say... I don't think I could leave the Bay Area. The weather, the geological features, the schools, the meetups, the job opportunities... all factors. But the biggest is that the people are truly interested in intellectual matters in a way that was not extant in the other places I've lived. My son is a programmer and nobody had a clue what he was talking abou…

Long Island and Boca Raton aren't exactly stiff competition in the "life of the mind" department. Also I disagree, IT is huge out there but other disciplines get short shrift.

IT != software development

Re: California's skyrocketing housing costs, taxes prompt exodus of residents

#220
post #9

I just visited some friends in southern California and the possibility of me moving out there came up in conversation. So, I used a cost of living calculator to figure how much more I would need to make to be at the same level... 60% more. Definitely not going to happen.

Something that most people fail to calculate as well is the difference in hours spent for work. If you have to add 2 extra hours of daily commute to your schedule you suddenly decrease your hourly wage by ~18% (estimating original commute of 1 hour daily). Not to mention all the other costs associated with that extra driving.
Post reply on HN