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

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

#611

Post by linkregister »

CalChris wrote: post #163
city41 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side to that is without prop 13, families like this would quickly find they can no longer afford to pay the taxes on their house and are forced to leave. Which is also not a great situation.

No, this doesn’t happen in other states that don’t have Prop 13. Instead in California the property tax burden is shifted to new home owners, young families just starting out.

It does happen in other states, though not to the extent it was happening to seniors in California when the measure was enacted.

Just because it’s a real phenomenon doesn’t mean they had to adopt the most destructive solution I’ve seen.

Other states have a deep discount for seniors’ property taxes, while others have a lien on the property that the buyer has to pay (thus reducing the sale price). Other states just have very low tax increases due to stagnant property values.

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

#612

Post by dboreham »

passthefist wrote: post #408
dboreham wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1999 I bailed out of the valley and moved to Livingston, MT. I had to build my own ISP to get connectivity to my house but otherwise it's been a success. Interesting to watch how the tech "scene" has changed over that time. I used to know all the developers in this half of the state personally!

I'd love to hear about what you had to do to get connectivity to your house and what was involved with being your own ISP.

One of those blog posts that has never been written...

Briefly, I had to deploy what is now a pretty standard WISP setup but back then almost nobody was doing that so I had to learn everything from scratch. I'm an EE by birth so it wasn't that hard, and I've worked in the networking/network application development sphere most of my career so that part wasn't too hard either. Being your own ISP is basically just a problem solved only by the application of a subtle combination of time and money.

We exited the ISP market a couple of years ago though since it had turned into a deep money pit with the rise of Netflix. Today the network is still in place but only serves my home, fed by a traditional residential copper coax connection to our office building in town.

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

#613

Post by wils1245 »

1ceaham wrote: post #378
harbie wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like 'living in squalor' is an exaggeration, or at least a separate category from what a lot of young engineers are doing in the Bay Area. Maybe if they were living in SF, sure, they could be living in dinghy studios. I know plenty of new grads in the South Bay/Peninsula living in apartments or rented houses that would be considered decent or nice in the rest of the country with plenty of money to spare. Mostl…

As a recent grad myself, this is the only comment that rings true for me. Anecdotal for sure, but most people that I went to grad school with and stayed in the bay are doing fine, even at mid-size companies. You can find someplace to live (especially with a significant other) that enables a moderate amount of saving / investing with a little frugality; however, there's a lot of luck and privilege that plays into bein…

Thr bay is a great place for young people to quickly grow their careers. The issue is that once you want to settle and raise children it’s impossible without an executive salary or some kind of inheritance.

Living with roommates is fun when you’re young, but nearly everyone tires of it eventually. You can also get a one or two bedroom with a partner and good salaries, but try adding a kid and that place is packed to the brim.

To counter your anecdote, I’m 30, and have been in the bay about 4 years. I believe I grew my career in the bay faster than I could have anywhere else, and am very happy to have come here.

I’m still single, so have no plans to leave, but _none_ of my friends my age looking to start families are expecting to stay here.

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

#614

Post by wils1245 »

zerr wrote: post #140
chis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it worthwhile to work there for a few years as a 20-year old though? I'm thinking it's a unique experience even if monetarily it's a poor choice.

If you're after investors' money then probably yes, as they say, but for the engineer, there is nothing special.

Not sure what you mean. There’s a whole lot of investor money flowing into engineers’ pockets here in the bay.

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

#615

Post by wils1245 »

abritinthebay wrote: post #321
5706906c06c wrote: post #49

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…

If you are paying that much in rent you can afford a mortgage on a larger place that’s a reasonable commute to the city. Now it'll likely be a condo, not a single-family home (that'll be more, or further way, or not as nice) but it's doable for sure. Not in SF, but just outside (Oakland, Fremont, Daly City, etc) What you can get will depend on what you can wrangle as a deposit but there are plenty of options if you c…

What’s a reasonable commute? If you’re in any of those places and commuting to SF you’re likely looking at an hour to get to work.

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

#616

Post by wils1245 »

JimboOmega wrote: post #174
mabbo wrote: post #78

It seems ironic that the land of self-aggrandizing free market disruption (Uber, AirBnb) seems so against the obvious free-market solution to their problems: increase supply. You have too little of something, and it's causing prices to skyrocket because demand is increasing. So make more of it, reducing the price. I just got back from a visit to the Bay Area. Outside of SF itself, not a single building over 4 stories…

So I generally agree, even within SF itself, basically nothing outside a tiny area of downtown is the height it could be. Tons of the bay area is under built. The regulatory environment is a nightmare. There is intense fear that any new building will bring newcomers that will destroy the community. That said... San Jose and Oakland both definitely have downtown portions with 20 story + buildings. RWC has been buildin…

To me, Mountain View is the most egregiously under built city in the bay. Huge corporate campus for Google and others, but the housing stock of a suburb.

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

#617

Post by cisanti »

cat199 wrote: post #154
jraby3 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that is a crazy rent. I also live with a wife and two kids in about a 1000 sq. ft. apartment and make a similar income (but pay $2k rent). I've been squirreling away $50k per year and buying cheap homes to help with passive income. Up to about $7k per month which helps a lot both in terms of future saving and investing and also with peace of mind if I ever lose my job.

> squirreling away $50k per year If you can save that much, it's not really 'squirreling'..

The whole SV area is out of touch with reality.

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

#618

Post by beatpanda »

linkregister wrote: post #585
beatpanda wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Rising levels of increasingly aggressive homeless Citation needed. The most recent data on this disagrees with you.

I’m inclined to believe you. Can you share a source? Homeless populations move around the city in response to police, etc., so the total number can be completely opaque to the average city resident.

http://hsh.sfgov.org/research-reports/san-francisco-homeless...

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

#619

Post by beatpanda »

linkregister wrote: post #585
beatpanda wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Rising levels of increasingly aggressive homeless Citation needed. The most recent data on this disagrees with you.

I’m inclined to believe you. Can you share a source? Homeless populations move around the city in response to police, etc., so the total number can be completely opaque to the average city resident.

The headline on this article is misleading, but:

"Just-released numbers from January’s homeless count, conducted every two years as a requirement to receive federal funds, show a very slight decrease. The drop is attributed to fewer families and youths among the homeless, while the number of single adults living on the street — the most visible — has risen."

http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Despite-money-an...

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

#620

Post by mrep »

jostmey wrote: post #189
ng12 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes Seattle better? I've visited friends there a few times and I can't shake the feeling that it's only trailing the Bay by a few years in of affordability and transportation woes.

My opinion: - Seattle has more diverse industry. I toured the bio-science companies down at the harbor and was really impressed. Seattle is more than just "tech". - SF is way too restrictive with allowing new housing to be built. I did not perceive the problem to be as bad in Seattle. - In SF, a lot of the streets reeked of weed--It's like when someone cranks up their music too loud forcing everyone to listen to it.…

you still live in seattle because I smell it everywhere?
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