Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas • Hacker News Board

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#261

Post by rsmckinney » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 9:52 PM UTC

pascalxus wrote: post #240

gilbetron wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

It's worse than that. Those people with the very most equity gains, are paying the least taxes relative to their house value. Those with the least equity gain (like recent buyers), are paying the very highest taxes relative to their house. It's basically like saying the person who earned over 1 million dollars in equity gain pays far less taxes than the one who earned 10k in equity gain. It's extremely regressive. An…

Shhh. Don’t wake the two elephants in the room from India and China. They represent the primary cause for real estate inflation in the Bay Area.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#262

Post by fortran77 » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 9:54 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.

Giant companies get to personally negotiate their own favorable property tax rates. If people goose-step to the polls in 2020 to confiscate additional property from commercial property owners in the form of increased property taxes [1], the mega-corporations won't pay a cent of it. The mom an pop business that give SF its character, however, will be driven out of business.

[1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Change-in-Calif...

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#263

Post by fortran77 » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 9:55 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!

No. Every time a house changes owners, it can be re-assessed at current rates.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#264

Post by newnewpdro » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 9:58 PM UTC

newnewpdro wrote: post #140

nthomas wrote: post #7

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

And large industrial accidents in your back yard, hooray for no zoning laws! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Fertilizer_Company_explos... https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/The-latest-E...

Just remembered this illuminating USCSB coverage of the West Fertilizer explosion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdDuHxwD5R4

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#265

Post by AnimalMuppet » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

ausjke wrote: post #224

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people leave CA? Because they don't like what it's becoming. So they move somewhere else. But it's not really what they want, either. What they want is maybe 75% Texas, 25% California. So they try to move Texas, not all the way to California, but in that direction. To the people in Texas, that feels like "trying to turn Texas into California".

People make the state as it is today, so those people are exactly the reason what made CA is becoming. No they don't want to do just 25%, they want to own it and do 100+% their way wherever they migrate to, it's called Stockholm Syndrome. After they destroy a new place, they will move on to yet another state, which is why I call epidemic.

You're assuming that, in bulk, the people who leave are the same as the people who stay. That's possible, but I suspect that it is not actually true.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#266

Post by scurvy » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 10:23 PM UTC

cjsplat wrote: post #196

godzillabrennus wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When they move to Texas.

Where they will learn that Texas government pays for itself with oil and gas extraction taxes, which don't exist in California.

Texas and the oil industry are one and the same, fully intertwined. God help the poor soul that owns land where a private oil company wants to build a pipeline or plant. Said land will be instantly seized by the company under eminent domain laws and the owner will get a pittance in return.

If you're cool with that, then Texas is a great place for you to live.

While this article is about Louisiana, the same laws (and practices) exist in Texas: https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_75b4ff32-0d87-...

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#267

Post by lykr0n » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 10:23 PM UTC

atombender wrote: post #252

lykr0n wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Billions in assets. Automated investment and market prediction projects. Extremely well built Web UI- you can tell they're hiring industry UI/UX people by the interface they are beta-ing- upgrade in functionality but major downgrade in usability.

What beta products are you referring to?

They're working on a new research UI. So you plugin a symbol like SPY and you get a bunch of information on the stock. There is a banner for a beta redesign

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#268

Post by lykr0n » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 10:25 PM UTC

undefined3840 wrote: post #176

lykr0n wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Billions in assets. Automated investment and market prediction projects. Extremely well built Web UI- you can tell they're hiring industry UI/UX people by the interface they are beta-ing- upgrade in functionality but major downgrade in usability.

A middle of the road developer can make all of those things. You don’t need a 10x ninja in SF who demands 500k/year to do that. Highly doubt Schwab has really been competing on salary in SF for tech roles as is.

Does anyone?

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#269

Post by hkmurakami » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 10:25 PM UTC

tootie wrote: post #170

hkmurakami wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TD Ameritrade is headquartered in Omaha. The HQ location choice is not driven by existing Ameritrafe footprint, or by the merger itself. The FAQ is simply addressing what will be, not starting that there was a cause and effect because of the proposed merger. Also, Schwab was already reducing SF headcount for years. Also, afaik the merger is still in the prices of regulatory review. All this being said, the merger lik…

Ameritrade has always been based in Omaha, but the T in TD stands for Toronto. So headquarters locations is a pretty malleable designation.

TD Ameritrade is a subsidiary of TD Bank. Subsidiaries have separate HQs from their owners. See BRKA for other examples.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#270

Post by scurvy » Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 10:26 PM UTC

proverbialbunny wrote: post #253

newguy1234 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what they always say but overtime they "integrate" more of the operations to the new headquarters and then eventually they want everyone under the same roof.

That's not always true. Some companies want and have an intentional international presence, for example. Many companies head quartered outside of the bay area create and hold parts of their company in the bay area. Not just companies from other states, but companies from other countries too. They do this, because they know how hard it is to get smart and talented employees doing difficult and cutting edge tech work o…

Sell side sales will probably stay in SF for west coast clients. I doubt Schwab has much in the way of Asia customers, but I bet there's a lot of west coast whales.