Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas • Hacker News Board

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#101

Post by sdnlafkjh34rw » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:36 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #28

nthomas wrote: post #7

Welcome to the Lone Star State! Cheap real estate and friendly folks. And BBQ, metric tons of BBQ...

And traffic out the wazoo, and few good alternatives to driving.

The traffic in Texas is significantly better than SF and LA. My parents live in a suburb that is 25 miles from the Houston and it takes 45 minutes to get to downtown during commute hours. My girlfriend has an equivalent commute in the Bay which takes around 75-90 minutes during commute hours.

The public transit is terrible in Texas so I expect it will be worse than the Bay in a decade or two if they refuse to build up transit, but for now it's a lot better. Texas has a lot more space so they've addressed traffic issues by building much wider highways and also multiple rings of highways. Obviously that's an unsustainable solution in the long term but for the time being, my Texas friends have way better commutes than what I see my co-workers deal with in the bay.

We shouldn't really be criticizing other states when California is definitely not the model for transit and traffic either. LA is a nightmare and SF is getting close to one as more and more tech companies move away from transit centers and force employees to drive.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#102

Post by 0xffff2 » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

Havoc wrote: post #53

Why were they even in SF at all? I mean unless you're in the tech scene & need the valley synergies the trade off seems straight up bad

Apparently they were founded in SF in 1971. I wasn't around back then, but presumably it was not the complicated expensive mess that the area is today, so there was no particular reason not to be in SF.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#103

Post by xyst » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

mikece wrote: post #10

To where in Texas are they moving? The non-paid version of the WSJ article doesn’t say. I keep hearing that in massive influx of tech companies to the Austin area has driven up housing rates and congestion to absurd levels. Probably won’t be long before tech companies skip Austin for cities like Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

Companies won’t skip out on Austin. They would be missing out on top tier talent from UT and surrounding schools.

Reason why Schwab is moving to Dallas (specifically Westlake) is because this is determined to be the next financial district (a majority of financial companies have satellite corporate offices in this specific area)

FYI: Schwab has had an existence in the 512 for some years now and in the recent years expanded/consolidated to a new office

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#104

Post by ethbro » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

justinzollars wrote: post #81

TulliusCicero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem with housing prices in California is that property taxes are too low. Prop 13 means existing homeowners are shielded from higher property taxes, so growing property values are only good for them, no matter how high. Thus, there's no incentive to increase housing supply, which could lower prices.

The problem with housing in California is that we do not build it because regulations prohibit new housing. Look at a zoning map in San Francisco. Housing is illegal.

I believe the full reasoning is that (1) if property owners paid property taxes on the full market value of their property, then (2) they would lobby for (or at least cease opposition against) upzoning for density, and (3) more dense housing would be legalized and built.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#105

Post by skybrian » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:38 PM UTC

zer00eyz wrote: post #69

skybrian wrote: post #58

This is better both for San Francisco and Texas, from a load-balancing perspective. Unless housing can catch up, large companies shouldn't be expanding in San Francisco.

Housing and taxes in CA are close to oppressive. The housing situation will not change unless CA voters agree to a change in property taxes and they won't. I would also bet that the move will come at the expense of Texas tax payers and to the benefit of Schwabb.

While California taxes are high, this doesn't seem to be the main reason that building more housing is difficult? For that you can blame zoning restrictions and political opposition.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#106

Post by pjg » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:39 PM UTC

Am I the only one who thinks nobody is talking about the elephant in the room ? i.e. the cause and effect. Fintech companies like Robinhood have popularized the concept of (a) zero fee trading and (b) better UI/UX and just better service/offering on highly scalable platforms that allow them to introduce new products/services, which are virtually impossible for legacy providers like Schwab. Seems like that is the single most important cause of Schwab and TDAmeritrade merger. Much like ~15 years ago when "Internet" based trading companies forced the traditional "phone calling" brokers to either merge with Internet upstarts or go out of business. Schwab survived the first wave of disruption as it aggressively embraced into Internet based trading. There was a wave of consolidation with other purely online trading companies e.g. Datek, Scottrade etc. merged into what is now TDAmeritrade.

Seems like the traditionals haven't been able to survive the second wave of disruption. This is what is prompting the merger i.e. if you can't grow like the fintechs then cut costs using merger cost synergies. A side effect of this is move from extremely high cost locales to lower cost ones. It's PR couched in terms like "Any additional real estate decisions will be made as part of the integration process, over time."

Good for San Fran and the bay area, it seems. Some prime corporate space being vacated should take a little pressure off real-estate prices (I hope).

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#107

Post by jogjayr » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:40 PM UTC

galangalalgol wrote: post #87

zer00eyz wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Housing and taxes in CA are close to oppressive. The housing situation will not change unless CA voters agree to a change in property taxes and they won't. I would also bet that the move will come at the expense of Texas tax payers and to the benefit of Schwabb.

Property taxes in fort worth are ~2.85%. What is bay area?

The Bay Area's problem isn't absolute tax rates. It's that taxes aren't calculated on current property value, but on original sale price. This keeps effective tax rates low if you bought earlier. It also discourages redevelopment, rezoning, or anything else that would bring more supply into the market.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#108

Post by jeffdavis » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:40 PM UTC

demosthenes14 wrote: post #12

spectramax wrote: post #3

I just moved to the Bay Area and I have no good opinions about living here. It’s a 3 trillion dollar neighborhood that has broken infrastructure, an abysmal housing situation, crime through the roof, homeless people everywhere, traffic, outrageous costs and just generally an awful place to live. I don’t know about the business side, but from an employee standpoint, fuck the Bay Area. Oh, and my car got broken into tw…

Sometimes I wonder if there’s a funded campaign against the Bay Area online. Where do you live, and where did you come from? I just moved to SF and yes it has homeless people, traffic and is extremely expensive, but these are things that every other big city I’ve lived in has. The costs and homelessness are worse than Seattle or NYC but not to the point that it’s a reduction in my quality of life. To say you have “no…

How much you pay for something can affect your opinion. SF does have a pretty high "where is the mobey going?!" factor.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#109

Post by 0xffff2 » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:40 PM UTC

gilbetron wrote: post #91

TulliusCicero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem with housing prices in California is that property taxes are too low. Prop 13 means existing homeowners are shielded from higher property taxes, so growing property values are only good for them, no matter how high. Thus, there's no incentive to increase housing supply, which could lower prices.

Whoa! Didn't even know about Prop 13 - that basically means no house can currently have a higher taxable value than basically double what it was worth in 1978. Insane!

Huh? I think you're mis-reading something. Your assertion is true only for houses that haven't changed hands since 1978. In most cases, the buyer of a house is assessed taxes on the market value of the house at the time of sale, and further increases are limited from there.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#110

Post by BurningFrog » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 5:40 PM UTC

justinzollars wrote: post #79

skybrian wrote: post #58

This is better both for San Francisco and Texas, from a load-balancing perspective. Unless housing can catch up, large companies shouldn't be expanding in San Francisco.

The attitude here is we are fully developed and thus done developing. I don't imagine a bright future for California with these housing policies.

I don't see a bright present:

"The poverty rate, when adjusted for the cost of living, is the worst in the nation"

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-california-housing-c...