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Re: San Francisco

#161

Post by eli »

upquark wrote: post #151
eli wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1,400 isn't going to get you your dream apartment, but it's a reasonable budget for a one bedroom apartment that's in DC and not in a bad neighborhood. It's also pretty common to live outside the city and commute in on Metro (DC's Metro is built more like a commuter rail than a urban subway system).

I wouldn't say 1.4k is a reasonable rent in DC, not in my experience at least. Not even if you move out to the nearby suburbs.

I agree that it's below average for a one bedroom in DC, but apartments do exist at that price. I've lived in DC for 9 years and I've never paid more than that. (Granted, my wife is a wizard-level Craigslist user.)

I think the tricky part is that there really aren't many apartment buildings in DC to begin with, aside from the recently built and very overpriced luxury condo conversions, so the supply of one bedroom apartments is low. If you can stand to have roommates, you're much better off with a 2 bedroom English basement or a 3-4 bedroom little rowhouse.

Re: San Francisco

#162

Post by ryanSrich »

potatolicious wrote: post #153
ryanSrich wrote: post #80

Eh. They can keep it. • Average engineering salary in sf: 116K / year [1] • Average rent for a one bedroom: $2,700 / month [2] After taxes you're coming in around 72k / year - 32k / year for rent You'll have roughly 40k to play with. That may sound like a lot but factor in food, health care, travel, energy, internet, phone, and numerous miscellaneous expenses and you'll be hard pressed to save anything over 10k a yea…

Your math is reasonably fair, IMO. That being said, the type of work being done in DC and SF is vastly different. I attended an iOS conference in DC a few months ago (I'm based out of NYC) and was shocked at how few "tech company" people were present. Nearly everyone was working for a government agency, a government contractor, or freelancing with a primarily government client-base. Personally I don't think I can do…

This is really the only reasonable dig I've heard against D.C.

I guess I was lucky enough to land a public sector job at a software shop that runs much like the hip ones out west. They are here, just not well represented.

Re: San Francisco

#163

Post by collypops »

rdouble wrote: post #152
davidw wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things that I really noticed when I moved from San Francisco to Italy was that here (Padua, Italy), there are young people, old people, rich people, and people not so well off. San Francisco is this kind of weird bubble where everyone has to have money to be there, so "regular people" don't exist. No kids, no old people, no people with sort of average jobs. I didn't like it, it felt too strange to me. I pr…

There are actually a lot of kids, and people with average jobs in SF. They just aren't white so tech people don't notice them. Regarding old people, retired people are actually the fastest growing demographic in the city.

Retired people are the fastest growing demographic in every city. We're living longer.

Re: San Francisco

#164

Post by mclenithan »

larrykubin wrote: post #159
rdouble wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's never very foggy east of Fillmore street, even in the summer. YMMV but SF weather is only miserable to people from LA.

As someone who lives in Portland, I would love to have SF's weather.

Yo Larry! Come down to LA, Santa Monica area. Code with ocean views! Although, I do miss the amount of live music in Portland.

Re: San Francisco

#165

Post by tlrobinson »

lobotryas wrote: post #88
ryanSrich wrote: post #80

Eh. They can keep it. • Average engineering salary in sf: 116K / year [1] • Average rent for a one bedroom: $2,700 / month [2] After taxes you're coming in around 72k / year - 32k / year for rent You'll have roughly 40k to play with. That may sound like a lot but factor in food, health care, travel, energy, internet, phone, and numerous miscellaneous expenses and you'll be hard pressed to save anything over 10k a yea…

You are forgetting the weather. DC winters: cold, snow, sometimes blizzard, have to scrape your car free from ice if you don't have indoor parking. SF winters: sometimes you have to put in a jacket and sometimes it rains. That's it. This is just one example of many. It's pointless to compare two cities on rent and cost of living alone. Now, if the extra 11k is worth the winter challenges to you then I'm happy. Person…

The weather is one of the worst things (that and high cost of living) about San Francisco (the city itself, not suburbs). There are maybe 3 weeks a year of actual warm, sunny weather. But you don't get the cold/snowy or hot/humid weather either.

Now, if you live 30+ minutes outside of San Francisco, you can have great weather and slightly lower cost of living.

Re: San Francisco

#166

Post by gyc »

philsnow wrote: post #97
lobotryas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting the weather. DC winters: cold, snow, sometimes blizzard, have to scrape your car free from ice if you don't have indoor parking. SF winters: sometimes you have to put in a jacket and sometimes it rains. That's it. This is just one example of many. It's pointless to compare two cities on rent and cost of living alone. Now, if the extra 11k is worth the winter challenges to you then I'm happy. Person…

in SF, summer is often colder than winter. I've never lived in DC, but - presence of good chinese food - weather (even though I love winter weather, DC summers would not be worth it) - jobs (which companies have large presences in SF vs DC-area) all conspire to make me completely incurious as to whether DC is "$11k/year" nicer than SF.

DC, especially in the suburbs, also has very good Chinese food.

Re: San Francisco

#167

Post by rdouble »

collypops wrote: post #163
rdouble wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are actually a lot of kids, and people with average jobs in SF. They just aren't white so tech people don't notice them. Regarding old people, retired people are actually the fastest growing demographic in the city.

Retired people are the fastest growing demographic in every city. We're living longer.

Yeah, but the article I read suggested that rich Californians from other parts of the state were choosing SF as a place to retire. (Whereas people actually from SF were leaving due to costs) I'll try to dig up the article if I can.

Re: San Francisco

#168

Post by tlrobinson »

rdouble wrote: post #146
jusben1369 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF people have to stop quoting the weather. The summer's are miserable with fog. It's as annoying as snow or sleet.

It's never very foggy east of Fillmore street, even in the summer. YMMV but SF weather is only miserable to people from LA.

It's not foggy, but it's not warm either.

Re: San Francisco

#169

Post by tommaxwell »

lnanek2 wrote: post #50
jechen wrote: post #42

On one hand, you have people earning six figures fighting for the dwindling, ever inflated supply of conventional housing options, and on the other, you have people like Nadia Eghbal who display the utmost resourcefulness and manage to live in SF for $20k a year ( http://helloimnadia.com/post/52242701025/how-to-live-in-san-... ). Really goes back to what pg says about being relentlessly resourceful. In the end, if yo…

Haha, yeah, I stayed at the StartupHouse a bit too. It was great being right in the middle of the city and being able to walk a block for groceries or tech meetups. Got a lot of coding done too! Too bad someone filed a complaint and got it shut down. I've never found the cost for living terribly high. All I need is a private room in a shared dwelling. The most I've ever paid for that is $2000/month in the center of S…

I stayed at StartupHouse until they got shut down and I have felt the same way. While I interned at a startup I was making $40k/year (it was a 6-month internship, so really only $20K), and I was able to live perfectly happy. I wasn't able to go out and spend money lavishly all the time, but I ate well, went out with friends on weekends, and overall had a good time.

Re: San Francisco

#170

Post by jusben1369 »

rdouble wrote: post #158
jusben1369 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SMH. You know you're drinking the Kool Aid when you try and go neighborhood by neighborhood. SF is terrible, Oakland/Berkeley better but not much (Berkeley gets nailed by the finger coming straight in from the GG Bridge) If you grew up somewhere else where summer meant putting your coat away for 3 months then "Two blocks over here the wind is still biting but the sun is out" isn't much of a consolation. Now, if you h…

I don't know what you mean. The microclimates there are just a fact of life. The sunset is going to be cooler and foggier than the Mission simply because of the topography. Berkeley and Oakland are actually 10 degrees warmer with only occasional fog all year round. The whole area gets like 300 days of sun per year. I just wonder where people are from when they say that the bay areas weather is "terrible." It seems hi…

Given we're talking about the weather some of this is in jest. And you've somewhat turned this around as "what do you mean the weather is terrible". I was objecting to the "the weather in SF is fantastic!" crowd who blow by Mark Twain's keen observation. Places I have lived for more than a year include the Bay Area, Boston, Melbourne Australia, Istanbul, Chapel Hill, London. I found the fog to be very annoying as I had to manage to the weather constantly there.
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