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Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

wsj.com

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Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#411

Post by kortilla »

untog wrote: post #349
willio58 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is going on a road trip a bad idea? I mean bring a mask, only shop weekly and keep food refrigerated, and keep social distance.

All of those things reduce risk, they do not remove it. And given that you can be asymptomatic for two weeks there’s a very real danger of spreading the virus. And there isn’t really a good reason to be doing it right now other than “I want to” so it’s not difficult to see it as a selfish act. (the friend travelling from city to city and staying in Airbnbs sounds considerably worse to me, though)

It’s no more selfish than those going to pickup takeout food from different restaurants multiple times a week. If you’re going to chide a van camper, chide every single person you see outside not having all of their groceries and supplies delivered to their doorstep.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#412

Post by nemo44x »

jonahbenton wrote: post #392
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it?

To be blunt- the other side of the deal is REALLY INTERESTED in having a party committed to 30 years of payments on a valuation that, they realize, almost certainly has to drop. Mortgage interest could be 0.5% and lenders would...probably still make the deal.

They’ve really been doing well selling refinancing for quite awhile now too. The interest rate is nearly immaterial to the closing costs, Selling points, PMI, etc.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#413

Post by formerly_proven »

fiblye wrote: post #346
baron816 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternate experience: I just moved into SF a week ago from elsewhere in the Bay. I was able to get a large, modern, luxury 1BR in a decent location for under $3K + almost a 1 month concession and no deposit. Being a single, young(ish) guy, it still makes sense to be in a city. I have more space than I need now, and I can afford the rent. Maybe things aren’t that nice right now, but I’m hoping they’ll get back to semi…

> I was able to get a large, modern, luxury 1BR in a decent location for under $3K This sounds like a joke about just how absurd SF rents are.

Guy spends about 150 % of my net income just on rent.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#414

Post by olivermarks »

boringg wrote: post #360
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except home prices are rocketing up rather than down ATM. If people are moving out, you’d think more of them would be selling their houses.

More people buying homes moving out of apartments and condos. People are now constrained to their building and want more space. Strange covid dynamic.

The fact that people are now working from home in very large numbers can make multi tenancy buildings noisy since people are SIP but making the sort of noise they'd make at the office, endless socializing on Zoom, phone etc. This claustrophobia is not likely to change soon as corporate balance sheets are lightened by the removal of commercial rents, HVAC, cleaning etc costs and WFH becomes the defacto norm.

Ergo more living space and noise exclusion is suddenly at a premium even if just suburbia.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#415

Post by bezmenov »

darkwizard42 wrote: post #403
pjlegato wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all apartments in SF are rent controlled. The landlord can only raise the rent by some tiny nominal percentage mandated by the rent board every year.

This isn't really true... it only applies to units that were built before a certain year (1979). If you are in any kind of modern unit / luxury unit as noted by GP, then this won't hold. However, most landlords in non-managed buildings are fairly reasonable about only raising rent 2-5% a year. Your mileage may vary.

That still applies to ~170k rental units, which constitute ~70% of the entire SF rental market.

https://www.spur.org/sites/default/files/publications_pdfs/S...

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#416

Post by x87678r »

josephg wrote: post #386
boringg wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good deal.

Only because of how insane housing in SF is. For comparison I own a 2br apartment in Melbourne, Australia. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from here to the heart of the city. My mortgage repayments (including interest) are about $700usd/month.

> My mortgage repayments (including interest) are about $700usd/month.

Melbourne is not cheap, there must be more to this story. The average house price in Melbourne is $855,428. A $600k unit, 20% deposit, 25y mortgage, cheap 2% rate is $1.4k or USD 1k. + strata fees

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#417

Post by VectorLock »

akavi wrote: post #395
baron816 wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

820sf and right between those two neighborhoods.

> right between those two neighborhoods So, in the tenderloin? Suddenly not a great deal.

A large luxurious modern SRO.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#418

Post by rtlfe »

justchilly wrote: post #174
captaincole wrote: post #102

I am living in SF now and this confirms a very clear pattern that I have seen emerging, particularly of tech workers. I would say that >50% of the people I know who were living in the city have left, or are in the process of leaving. Some examples (there are countless): 1) All three of the roommates that I had are choosing to leave either permanently or temporarily. 2) A friend who works for google who is going on a…

I've seen the same. The misconception is that people are leaving because the housing is too expensive and its not worth it anymore. Almost everybody I know that moved out had no problem affording housing (high earners / home owners / rent controlled). People are leaving because quality of life has fallen dramatically and the only thing keeping people in SF was their offices. About half of the tech people I know have…

> People are leaving because quality of life has fallen dramatically and the only thing keeping people in SF was their offices.

What are these quality of life issues, and how have other cities avoided them?

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#419

Post by b112 »

steev wrote: post #27
luma wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't this then also be true of LA or San Jose, both mentioned in the article? It feels like you have a politcal axe to grind and came here to the comments before reading the article.

I am not sure I follow. It seems plausible that the sky-high taxes are a major motivator for people wanting to leave CA but a recent change in SF made it possible for people to move to a different state (e.g., Twitter and FB allowing permanent remote work and Google working remotely into 2021).

One thing, Yahoo and IBM had remote, then one day that perm remote became a nope.

Some people are very poor at remote. If too many are thus, it may end.

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