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How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

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Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#51

Post by garmaine »

toast0 wrote: post #44
rootusrootus wrote: post #22

I've always wondered what software developers make in the heart of silicon valley. I see some things that basically say 'more than Portland but only by maybe 50% or so', which means perhaps $180K or so? Nobody is buying a million dollar house on that kind of income, but in Portland (where I think houses are pretty expensive) someone making $120K wouldn't have any problem buying a perfectly fine place, even pretty clo…

A $1M loan (at 4%), is just under $60k/year for the mortgage, you also need to pay property tax and insurance, but it wouldn't take you too far off the rules of thumb for a $180k. Of course, $1M doesn't get you much of a house in the south bay. Either a pretty small house with a fairly small lot in an iffy neighborhood with poor schools, or a condo/townhouse with more square feet and nearly zero outdoors space. If yo…

You're ignoring taxes.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#52

Post by jacobolus »

matte_black wrote: post #18
jacobolus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention living with all of your extended family under one roof, starting a church or homeless shelter or disco club, stockpiling enough food to outlast a zombie uprising, or displaying your collection of luxury cars you never drive.... More seriously, in general single-family houses should be on the order of 1000–2000 square feet. The rest is typically a complete waste (nobody I know who has a 4000+ square foo…

I don’t know about you, but 1000-2000 sqft for a single family home with an actual family in it is downright cramped. You could turn a garage into a wood shop though if you don’t have a particular need to store your car in a garage. The point of a large home is to turn it into your own personal oasis where you can spend days at a time without ever really needing to leave, and without feeling bored. The thing is, many…

Um... I grew up living in a maybe 1100 square foot house with 4 people and occasional extended guests. It was a bit tight maybe (e.g. 2 kids in one bedroom, some contention for the one bathroom), but “downright cramped” is an exaggeration. I currently live with 3 people in a 1200 square foot condo and it seems plenty spacious. 2000 square feet should be enough for a family of 8 or something.

My godparents’ family lived with a dozen people in a few mud-brick + straw roofed rooms probably totaling 500 square feet, plus some outdoor space between buildings. Now that’s cramped.

> The point of a large home is to turn it into your own personal oasis where you can spend days at a time without ever really needing to leave, and without feeling bored.

In my opinion that is a depressing vain and wasteful way to live. YMMV.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#53

Post by Domenic_S »

chrissnell wrote: post #47
nitrogen wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you arrive at this $30k/mo figure?

Commonly accepted figure for total cost of a house is 1% a month.

The 1% rule is for pricing rentals. Actual cost (PITI) in California is something like 0.5-0.75%.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#54

Post by [deleted] »

Zhenya wrote: post #23
rootusrootus wrote: post #22

I've always wondered what software developers make in the heart of silicon valley. I see some things that basically say 'more than Portland but only by maybe 50% or so', which means perhaps $180K or so? Nobody is buying a million dollar house on that kind of income, but in Portland (where I think houses are pretty expensive) someone making $120K wouldn't have any problem buying a perfectly fine place, even pretty clo…

These homes aren't being built/bought by your general software dev. This is the Dir/VP/EVP + founders + high equity;low digit employee id exitors.

[deleted]

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#55

Post by reassembled »

Y7ZCQtNo39 wrote: post #26
Zhenya wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These homes aren't being built/bought by your general software dev. This is the Dir/VP/EVP + founders + high equity;low digit employee id exitors.

Aren't there many more general software developers than there are VP's, founders, and low digit employee exiters? Like, I'm curious what drives the demand for homes in the ~$2M range in the bay area, if it's not the general software developer who's able to afford it.

From what I understand the insane home prices in SV are also due to a large number of foreign cash buyers coming in and quickly securing deals. Sometimes multiple all cash bids on the same house.

My grandmother's home and my childhood home, both in Cupertino, just sold for upwards of 2.5 mil each to all-cash buyers. I can't verify the foreign money aspect for these sales but people I have worked with who have left the valley in the last few years indicate it is quite common. I left silicon valley nearly 10 years ago now but was born and raised in Cupertino.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#56

Post by kajecounterhack »

paxys wrote: post #50
rootusrootus wrote: post #22

I've always wondered what software developers make in the heart of silicon valley. I see some things that basically say 'more than Portland but only by maybe 50% or so', which means perhaps $180K or so? Nobody is buying a million dollar house on that kind of income, but in Portland (where I think houses are pretty expensive) someone making $120K wouldn't have any problem buying a perfectly fine place, even pretty clo…

A million dollar home is comfortably affordable on a $180K income if you save for a few years for a downpayment.

+1 also a lot of people can get 10% downpayment loans now.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#57

Post by erl »

rootusrootus wrote: post #22

I've always wondered what software developers make in the heart of silicon valley. I see some things that basically say 'more than Portland but only by maybe 50% or so', which means perhaps $180K or so? Nobody is buying a million dollar house on that kind of income, but in Portland (where I think houses are pretty expensive) someone making $120K wouldn't have any problem buying a perfectly fine place, even pretty clo…

if you are buying a house you are probably a member of a family with two adults and hopefully two incomes. That makes a $1M more realistic.

At least that is the way it works here in Stockholm where $1M houses frequently are bought by people with way lower salary than 180k, often not even 180k combined in the family. However, prices here are very inflated and rates are super low.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#58

Post by visarga »

xenadu02 wrote: post #33
rootusrootus wrote: post #22

I've always wondered what software developers make in the heart of silicon valley. I see some things that basically say 'more than Portland but only by maybe 50% or so', which means perhaps $180K or so? Nobody is buying a million dollar house on that kind of income, but in Portland (where I think houses are pretty expensive) someone making $120K wouldn't have any problem buying a perfectly fine place, even pretty clo…

Senior should make 175-200k base plus 100-200k in RSUs per year rolling - that is if you get a good initial grant and keep getting good reviews by year 4 you have staggered vesting that nets that amount. At 300-400k per year you should be able to live a good lifestyle while saving for a house. Really senior engineers can certainly make more; 500k for a top 10% performer. For reference I just got my tax statement for…

Is it even worth it? It's like buying a car in a city where average commute time is two hours. Diminishing returns, not worth it to have a car under those conditions.

Maybe a different region would have better balance, even at lower pay. I know people who own a newly constructed, large house with a garden, two cars, and raise kids in Romania on a meagre salary compared to yours. In the Bay area most of the profit and hard work goes to pay the exorbitant housing prices - just making the landlords and constructors rich.

Reminds me of Andrew Ng who expects "70-90 hours a week" from his employees, and is talking up "importance of velocity" with his new fund. That's 15 hours of work per day and one day off per week. Crazy! Why bother to do that, it would be a disaster for balanced life. (https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/30/andrew-ng-officially-launc...)

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#59

Post by matte_black »

jacobolus wrote: post #52
matte_black wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know about you, but 1000-2000 sqft for a single family home with an actual family in it is downright cramped. You could turn a garage into a wood shop though if you don’t have a particular need to store your car in a garage. The point of a large home is to turn it into your own personal oasis where you can spend days at a time without ever really needing to leave, and without feeling bored. The thing is, many…

Um... I grew up living in a maybe 1100 square foot house with 4 people and occasional extended guests. It was a bit tight maybe (e.g. 2 kids in one bedroom, some contention for the one bathroom), but “downright cramped” is an exaggeration. I currently live with 3 people in a 1200 square foot condo and it seems plenty spacious. 2000 square feet should be enough for a family of 8 or something. My godparents’ family liv…

A small home is an equally wasteful way to live — a waste of opportunity.

Re: How much does it cost to build a home in Silicon Valley? (2016)

#60

Post by johnny99 »

The comments in this thread focus on senior engineers, but a lot of the big earners I know in the Bay Area aren't engineers--they may be in tech, but senior BD, marketing, product, finance, legal, and especially sales people can all make well north of $300k. At my last company the biggest W2's were all sales people.
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