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Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

nytimes.com

1–10 of 115 posts

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#2
A little reminder that we sometimes forget in the San Francisco Bay Area -- there are plenty of other, really wonderful places to live.

People here will rattle off weather, jobs, activities (outdoors) -- but the reality of the situation is that there are plenty of incredible places to live in the US, where you can make within 10%-20% of your Bay Area wage with 30%-40% or more less housing costs.

Even a place like LA or San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Austin, Chicago, etc -- you won't believe the homes, apartments, lofts, flats, condos you can get. Absolutely stunning places, with great activities and schooling.

I don't see myself in the Bay Area in 15 years or so, unless there's a drastic change in the cost of housing.

That goes without saying that I find people in the bay area generally rather unfriendly/unapproachable vs. other major metros.

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#3

A little reminder that we sometimes forget in the San Francisco Bay Area -- there are plenty of other, really wonderful places to live. People here will rattle off weather, jobs, activities (outdoors) -- but the reality of the situation is that there are plenty of incredible places to live in the US, where you can make within 10%-20% of your Bay Area wage with 30%-40% or more less housing costs. Even a place like LA…

Many of the best jobs in areas such as technology, design and finance are on the coasts. No doubt that costs are lower in the middle of the country, but pay is also substantially lower. I wonder why more top companies don't try to take advantage of the cost savings of setting up in middle America vs. outsourcing jobs abroad?

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#4

A little reminder that we sometimes forget in the San Francisco Bay Area -- there are plenty of other, really wonderful places to live. People here will rattle off weather, jobs, activities (outdoors) -- but the reality of the situation is that there are plenty of incredible places to live in the US, where you can make within 10%-20% of your Bay Area wage with 30%-40% or more less housing costs. Even a place like LA…

Many of the best jobs in areas such as technology, design and finance are on the coasts. No doubt that costs are lower in the middle of the country, but pay is also substantially lower. I wonder why more top companies don't try to take advantage of the cost savings of setting up in middle America vs. outsourcing jobs abroad?

There's lots of "near sourcing" too - outsourcing jobs to companies in parts of the country with lower cost of living.

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#5

A little reminder that we sometimes forget in the San Francisco Bay Area -- there are plenty of other, really wonderful places to live. People here will rattle off weather, jobs, activities (outdoors) -- but the reality of the situation is that there are plenty of incredible places to live in the US, where you can make within 10%-20% of your Bay Area wage with 30%-40% or more less housing costs. Even a place like LA…

Many of the best jobs in areas such as technology, design and finance are on the coasts. No doubt that costs are lower in the middle of the country, but pay is also substantially lower. I wonder why more top companies don't try to take advantage of the cost savings of setting up in middle America vs. outsourcing jobs abroad?

They do. http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/10/silicon-valleys-real-estate...

From a broad climate change perspective, is it really so good that SF and New York are contributing to faster population growth in the South/Southwest, where water resources are more scarce? And cities are less dense, facilitating more driving and consumption of gas?

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#6
Man, I feel like I'm going to be really negative, I hope not, but here goes: OKC is undergoing an oil boom, the secondary effects of which are being reported in this article (IMO). My advice: come live in Oklahoma or Kansas if you actually like it here and want to be here for a long time, because when the boom dies, you'll find it harder to leave. Opportunities abound on the coasts. Texas, well, Texas is always a great place to live and work... they are almost always the exception.

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#7

A little reminder that we sometimes forget in the San Francisco Bay Area -- there are plenty of other, really wonderful places to live. People here will rattle off weather, jobs, activities (outdoors) -- but the reality of the situation is that there are plenty of incredible places to live in the US, where you can make within 10%-20% of your Bay Area wage with 30%-40% or more less housing costs. Even a place like LA…

Many of the best jobs in areas such as technology, design and finance are on the coasts. No doubt that costs are lower in the middle of the country, but pay is also substantially lower. I wonder why more top companies don't try to take advantage of the cost savings of setting up in middle America vs. outsourcing jobs abroad?

They do. For example, UBS is moving 1,000 jobs to Nashville.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2013/08/ubs-to-bri...

However, These things take time. It's a big risk to move your company to a different place. It's a even bigger risk if you can't hire people in that new place.

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#8
It's interesting that there's no mention of the role of the Internet and telecommuting in this trend. The housing market's changes are certainly dramatic. But it's also worth noting that there's been a substantial cultural and technology change each year making working remotely more achievable for a growing % of people. And many of those are higher paying jobs. And remote work isn't just johnny developer in his home office. Constant improvements in technology make it more and more viable to start your financial services company in a smaller location vs the North East. Of your health care focused company. Or of course your high tech startup. All this needs to do is account for an incremental 1% of the working jobs in your city each year and you can see what happens after 5 or 10 years. That's the tipping point of disposable income for your kayaking instructor to make a business out of.

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#9

A little reminder that we sometimes forget in the San Francisco Bay Area -- there are plenty of other, really wonderful places to live. People here will rattle off weather, jobs, activities (outdoors) -- but the reality of the situation is that there are plenty of incredible places to live in the US, where you can make within 10%-20% of your Bay Area wage with 30%-40% or more less housing costs. Even a place like LA…

Many of the best jobs in areas such as technology, design and finance are on the coasts. No doubt that costs are lower in the middle of the country, but pay is also substantially lower. I wonder why more top companies don't try to take advantage of the cost savings of setting up in middle America vs. outsourcing jobs abroad?

Eventually you will run out of available, qualified local talent and you will need to hire someone from a coastal tech hub. Only most Californians/New Yorkers don't want to move to Salt Lake City, or Oklahoma, or Houston, or anywhere else in the middle. The flag is the same but the culture is drastically different.

Re: Affordable Housing Draws Middle Class to Inland Cities

#10

Man, I feel like I'm going to be really negative, I hope not, but here goes: OKC is undergoing an oil boom, the secondary effects of which are being reported in this article (IMO). My advice: come live in Oklahoma or Kansas if you actually like it here and want to be here for a long time, because when the boom dies, you'll find it harder to leave. Opportunities abound on the coasts. Texas, well, Texas is always a gre…

Agreed this was super OKC focused (almost felt like OKC planted story if it wasn't the NY Times!) but the data supports the fact this is a broader trend.
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