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Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

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71–80 of 424 posts

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#71
Anecdotally, it surprises me how many people are still buying homes during the pandemic.

Region-wide, prices fell 2.9% in the Bay Area in 2019; it "feels like" prices merely held relatively steady, and the selling prices I'm seeing the past month or so are on track with that.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#72

Desirable areas will always be (relatively) more expensive. Even if we see significant deflation (which is unlikely given the scale of money printing), these areas (NYC, SF) will probably remain expensive so long as they remain significant culturally and economically. When it becomes uncool to live in SF or NYC, then perhaps people will move to places like Wyoming en masse.

The cultural amenities of cities are in serious jeopardy, generally. Many of the restaurants, clubs, theaters, museums, bars, etc that make the city a desirable place may never reopen.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#73
post #53
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a damn shame, really, the slavish devotion to one's car and spending hours a day sitting in traffic apparently is apparently preferred over actually getting time back in your everyday life. It's like people have adapted to having no life outside of work, and now they're just so bored they'd rather lose that time than just find a new hobby or learn something. I don't think I've ever thought about anything more de…

> It's a damn shame, really, the slavish devotion to one's car and spending hours a day sitting in traffic apparently is apparently preferred over actually getting time back in your everyday life. It's like people have adapted to having no life outside of work, and now they're just so bored they'd rather lose that time than just find a new hobby or learn something. I don't think I've ever thought about anything more…

>It would probably help the discussion if you didn't straw-man the people who don't want to work from home and dismiss their perspectives out of hand.

Wasn't doing that at all. People who want to go to the office and don't have an hourslong commute in traffic aren't the people I'm referring to. I'm referring to the people who have hourslong commutes sitting in traffic. People who are close to their jobs and want to go in, great, it's the fact that a huge percentage of the country drives to work. If you don't commute far to get to work, or perhaps don't even own a car, then I'm not talking about you.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#74
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what the scam is. Sounds like normal supply and demand.

Forcing artificially low housing supply via legislation.

This exactly. I consider nearly all economic rents a "scam." A land-value tax set to the value of the economic rent would be a great corrective force on this.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#75
post #13

I'm pretty bearish on the pandemic actually leading to massive change in the number of people permanently working from home. My boss put out a survey a week or two ago among my org (30 or so people), and 70% said that they want to work from the office, full time, 20% said some time or most of the time, and 10% said fully remote. And this is a group of people that would be largely well suited to working from home duri…

> young, no kids, etc There is your major reason for that survey result. Companies with median-older workforces will see more enthusiasm for remote work.

In my 30s, married, with kids, and a dog. Will NEVER willingly commute into an office. I'm significantly more productive and have build a life style around getting my work done, quick lunch break, walking the dog is get up from my desk at healthy intervals. When paired with a results only work environment, allows me to handle errands during non peak hours and then finish up any remaining work in the evening hours after things calm down and there are fewer distractions.

1. Morning: Meetings 2. Afternoon: Actual work 3. Family/dinner 4. Evenings after a break: Catch up with any email/work slack 5. Time with wife/family 6. Sleep and repeat.

I LOVE not having to factor commute time in with all this. So productive.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#76

I'm pretty bearish on the pandemic actually leading to massive change in the number of people permanently working from home. My boss put out a survey a week or two ago among my org (30 or so people), and 70% said that they want to work from the office, full time, 20% said some time or most of the time, and 10% said fully remote. And this is a group of people that would be largely well suited to working from home duri…

Likely some selection bias there, in that your company was not fully remote when people took their jobs. People tend to take a job that is suited for them: if they want to work in an office, they take an office job, if they want to work remotely, they'll take a remote job. Remote-only or remote-primary companies exist (see: WordPress, GitHub, Gitlab, ElasticSearch, Ethereum, MakerDao); many of the people who actually want to work remotely already work for one.

I do suspect your numbers are probably pretty close to right, though, given the number of jobs at such remote-only companies vs. those at traditional Silicon Valley offices.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#77
I know this article focused on established players, but I'm curious what the pandemic means for early-phase startups based out of SV and NYC. When every sales pitch and networking event is a Zoom call, you lose any benefit to taking expensive space in a Mission District incubator.

If aspiring founders leave the city (even temporarily), they may still find success, but are they going to relocate back to the pricey areas when it's safe to open up?

I've spent the last 5 years hoping for a catalyst that moves tech out of the two biggest players so it can actually help stimulate different regions of the US. Maybe the quarantine will finally trigger this

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#78
Meh - people are going to be experiencing a wake up call in a couple years when they lose that job and need another. I really doubt remote based jobs will go up in income now. I expect them to fall - if anything. (Increased supply of workers wanting to go remote cause housing too expensive in big cities - can you imagine how many people are craving a bigger home now?)

Can't imagine how devastating it will be when you see your household income fall from $500k+/yr to $200k/yr. Junior ain't going to private schools anymore.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#79

One thing this doesn't mention is the pay cuts that happen if you do decide to relocate to cheaper areas. Both me and my Wife's company have pay bands based on geographical region(most employees know nothing about this and most companies employ these salary COL changes for relocation) and certain regions you can take a big pay cut. Say your salary in the bay area is 100k for example, move to the South, say Florida an…

What's the rationale for this?

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#80
post #32
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a damn shame, really, the slavish devotion to one's car and spending hours a day sitting in traffic apparently is apparently preferred over actually getting time back in your everyday life. It's like people have adapted to having no life outside of work, and now they're just so bored they'd rather lose that time than just find a new hobby or learn something. I don't think I've ever thought about anything more de…

I live in Boston and commute on the subway. I specifically live in a major city because I like the city atmosphere, events, night life, restaurants, etc. I have co-workers that live in the suburbs and do the car thing (although many take the commuter train), but I don't. So I have no problem commuting to work. I like the subway.

I’d have no problem with a subway commute. You can read or otherwise stay productive like would be otherwise impossible in a car.

Unfortunately, the US seems unlikely to get high-speed rail projects functional...ever.

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