Live data from Hacker News

Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

mercurynews.com

121–130 of 694 posts

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#121
post #31
post #16

Most of the bay area employees are divided into 3 categories from anecdotal experience: young rockstars that are willing to live in relative squalor for a chance to prove themselves, vested and moneyed elites (CEO's, presidents, VC funded overlords) who are so out of touch with the average employee its best they not show up to the office that frequently, and H1B visa recipients that endure the soul-crushing San Jose…

A fourth category: people who have lived here for a long time, and were able to buy property back before it became unaffordable. These are typically the managers or senior employees. It makes me wonder that as the young rockstars and H1B recipients age, where will they go? They certainly can't afford to buy a house. I imagine as time goes on, companies in the Bay Area will be awash with young junior talent but will s…

I used to live in Las Vegas, and before that SF. Downtown Las Vegas (not the strip) looks a lot like SF's bar rows. Once it became a tiny tech hub the usual culture was imported, grafted onto the surrounding Las Vegas milieu.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#122
post #16

Most of the bay area employees are divided into 3 categories from anecdotal experience: young rockstars that are willing to live in relative squalor for a chance to prove themselves, vested and moneyed elites (CEO's, presidents, VC funded overlords) who are so out of touch with the average employee its best they not show up to the office that frequently, and H1B visa recipients that endure the soul-crushing San Jose…

I did the math once and realized that the cost of a modest apartment large enough for my family in SF/SV would exceed my total cost of living in Southern California.

SoCal is not exactly cheap. That's completely and utterly insane.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#123
post #91
post #14

Montana, a land of National parks, natural beauty, fast internet, and a low cost of living has a number of high tech jobs open. Full disclosure, I own an internet company here and want more tech savvy people in the area ;) Social Finanace (SoFi) | Helena, MT Oracle | Bozeman, MT OnXMaps | Missoula, MT Zaneray Group | Whitefish, MT Submittable | Missoula, MT Applied Materials | Kalispell, MT

How friendly to trans people is Montana?

Usually if you don't be a dick (if you have one or not) nobody cares. Missoula would be the best town if you're looking for an inclusive city culturally. Our state pride is pretty big. https://www.bigskypride.com

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#124
post #14

Montana, a land of National parks, natural beauty, fast internet, and a low cost of living has a number of high tech jobs open. Full disclosure, I own an internet company here and want more tech savvy people in the area ;) Social Finanace (SoFi) | Helena, MT Oracle | Bozeman, MT OnXMaps | Missoula, MT Zaneray Group | Whitefish, MT Submittable | Missoula, MT Applied Materials | Kalispell, MT

Counterpoint: it is a very conservative state, and one of their elected representatives choke-slammed a Guardian journalist who was trying to ask him questions, and he still got elected.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#125
post #90

38, two kids and a wife. Have been living in a 900SQ/FT apt, I don't know how much longer I can take this before rage quitting and relocating somewhere else (don't know where). The sad part, as a ethnic-minority, I have just found our community for my kids, etc. It would be really tragic if I have to tear my kids away from that. Don't get me wrong, my daily 30 minute commute on BART isn't the worst. The worst part is…

Get out, man. The region isn't trying to help people like you, with families, it's trying to help the entrenched who bought 20 years ago. You may make less money in terms of income in most other cities, but your retirement savings will grow a lot faster regardless. I work on a traveling/remote team. One of my teammates lives in Chattanooga. His 3 bedroom house with I think 2 or 3 aces of land put him back a whopping…

Lots of places like this. Check out this 3-bedroom with front porch, backyard, for $70,000 in Iowa: https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/IA/pmf,pf_pt/87001013_...

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#126
post #14

Montana, a land of National parks, natural beauty, fast internet, and a low cost of living has a number of high tech jobs open. Full disclosure, I own an internet company here and want more tech savvy people in the area ;) Social Finanace (SoFi) | Helena, MT Oracle | Bozeman, MT OnXMaps | Missoula, MT Zaneray Group | Whitefish, MT Submittable | Missoula, MT Applied Materials | Kalispell, MT

>I own an internet company here and want more tech savvy people in the area ;) I hope you enjoy crowded national parks and a high cost of living. Be careful what you wish for. Denver used to be what you've described. Now it's just California's ski lodge.

Change can't be fought, only embraced and directed.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#127
post #69

I'm surprised no one has mentioned http://www.sfyimby.org/ They're the go-to people if you want to be involved in fixing things.

FYI, California state legislature has passed a number of housing laws this year intended to accelerate housing development and affordable housing. I am hoping this really makes a dent. On the other hand, I don't think real estate would ever be cheap in coastal California as the demand for such real estate extends far beyond the US.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#128
post #31
post #16

Most of the bay area employees are divided into 3 categories from anecdotal experience: young rockstars that are willing to live in relative squalor for a chance to prove themselves, vested and moneyed elites (CEO's, presidents, VC funded overlords) who are so out of touch with the average employee its best they not show up to the office that frequently, and H1B visa recipients that endure the soul-crushing San Jose…

A fourth category: people who have lived here for a long time, and were able to buy property back before it became unaffordable. These are typically the managers or senior employees. It makes me wonder that as the young rockstars and H1B recipients age, where will they go? They certainly can't afford to buy a house. I imagine as time goes on, companies in the Bay Area will be awash with young junior talent but will s…

I have friends who have moved there. They are married and their kids are young. Neither of them plan on staying there when it's time for their kids to go to school.

They tell me about how guards have been placed at their local train stops to cut down on the number of suicide attempts by stressed out high school students who feel insane performance pressure.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#129
post #16

Most of the bay area employees are divided into 3 categories from anecdotal experience: young rockstars that are willing to live in relative squalor for a chance to prove themselves, vested and moneyed elites (CEO's, presidents, VC funded overlords) who are so out of touch with the average employee its best they not show up to the office that frequently, and H1B visa recipients that endure the soul-crushing San Jose…

Vested elites. Yeah, I know a decently successful ex-VC. Lives in Menlo-Atherton. Dunno why. I suppose it doesn’t matter. Good schools. Used to it. Prop 13.

Re: Bay Area hammered by loss of jobs: Lack of affordable housing strangles hiring

#130
post #59
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fourth category: people who have lived here for a long time, and were able to buy property back before it became unaffordable. These are typically the managers or senior employees. It makes me wonder that as the young rockstars and H1B recipients age, where will they go? They certainly can't afford to buy a house. I imagine as time goes on, companies in the Bay Area will be awash with young junior talent but will s…

> where will they go Other tech hubs. Portland, Seattle - even little Bend has plenty of people from California who are attracted by the (for them) low housing prices. They, in turn, put pressure on housing prices for 'ordinary' people here. California's housing crisis has repercussions all up and down the west coast.

Yeah, I wish more would come to Phoenix and drive up our real estate prices more.

I left California right before the last housing bubble burst to take advantage of the real estate arbitrage.

I'd love to do it again.

Post reply on HN