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Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

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Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#111

Post by simlejeune »

Chris911 wrote: post #106
atomic77 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To address both comments - I didn't mean to suggest Montreal is the new promised land, just to add some discussion of non-US locations that may hold promise since the comments had been US-centric. Most tech people working in the US likely will be shocked at how little tech workers are paid in most of the rest of the world, including Canada. But not everything is about absolute salary. Montreal, imo, provides a well-b…

What do you think is the average software developer salary in Montreal?

How much you make? ;)

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#112

Post by swozey »

edwhitesell wrote: post #47
Cshelton wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for Dallas. I would consider Dallas over Austin, just from the sheer growth and potential Dallas has. The tech/startup scene has exploded over the last 3 years. No state income tax, low cost of living. Dallas also has the highest growth percentage in the nation, it was 2nd behind Houston but the oil market killed that real quick, so Dallas is on top. Literally all of my friends are from Seattle, Denver, California…

I completely agree with your thoughts on Austin. To me, Austin has more of a "Portland" vibe. But the growth (and potential growth) just isn't there. It is in Dallas. I guess I also should have noted in my first comment, prior to Dallas, we lived in Boston. There was a fair amount of tech jobs there, but nothing really "new". The tech scene never really seemed very strong either. Unless, maybe, you were part of the s…

"But the growth (and potential growth) just isn't there."

I could pull up hundreds of articles on how Austin is in the top 1-5 in growth in the USA so I'm not sure where you're getting this statement from. Not to mention the growth is blatantly obvious if you live here and deal with traffic, house shopping, or getting brunch on a Sunday.

I've been here 6 years and it feels like a completely different city now. But I do live and work downtown.

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/moneybox/2015/0...

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/17/248757580/even-an-85-mph-highw...

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#113

Post by agentgt »

I'm particularly biased as I went to school at GaTech but Atlanta has greatly improved over the last decade or so.

It obviously has a completely different social, ethnic and economic diversity than SF does as well as being far far more cost effective. It also has real BBQ as well as being not that far from Miami (my favorite city but not good to live/work in).

I would recommend Boston (where I currently live) except that it has brutal weather, fairly caustic hospitality to new comers and is not that much cheaper. Its great for college kids but no so much for early 30 somethings hoping to own something some day.

If your are going to live in or near Boston I highly recommend Waltham, MA where I currently live. Waltham is not as cool as parts of Boston or Cambridge but its a hell of lot cheaper. Waltham has so many things to do. I can fish on the Charles in the afternoon, walk down the river and watch a movie in the local theater and then hit up the massive bar and restaurant scene all in the same city with out hopping on the T or car.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#115

Post by mucker »

humbleMouse wrote: post #91
prime09 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 I moved from San Jose to Minneapolis last fall and couldn't be happier.

I am a native of Minneapolis proper and I would say move here to South Minneapolis. The suburbs suck and are absolutely terrible unless upper middle class white bumpkins are your crowd. South Minneapolis and midtown are super cool and you can still buy in before full gentrification kicks in.

Wow. That's the most racist thing I've read in a while.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#116

Post by sn0v »

throwaway376183 wrote: post #62
spillihp wrote: post #8

Want to put in a quick plug for Sacramento. Great quality of life here, generally great weather (sometimes a little hot in summer, but sunny most of the year), affordable housing with rents between $500 and $1,000 (and affordable to buy a house - still good places available for under $300k), nice neighborhoods, great amenities, bars, restaurants, all that. Good access to awesome outdoors. And really easy to get to th…

Lately I've been very interested in moving to Sacramento. I like just about everything I read about the city (can't really say the same about SF/SV). My main worry is that searches for local dev jobs turn up almost nothing. I don't think I could handle a 2+ hour commute daily. Any advice?

Find a remote job maybe? Shouldn't be super hard to find one in SV. I know GitHub is one such employer.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#117

Post by mjfern »

I'm in Raleigh/Durham, NC. You have great universities here (UNC, Duke, NC State, etc.), nice weather with 4 seasons, blossoming startup culture, Research Triangle Park with Red Hat, SAS, and a variety of other big tech companies with a significant presence, and relatively inexpensive housing! I moved here 3 years ago from the Bay area for quality of life reasons. It's worth a serious look. :)

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#118

Post by shawkinaw »

jseliger wrote: post #64
seancoleman wrote: post #27

Phoenix is often not included when discussing tech cities, and I think it's a shame. I've lived here my entire life and have seen the startup and tech scenes evolve and mature having started 2 companies here. Just in the past few years, the number of quality startups and investments have soared and I believe we're at the inflection point that will make Phoenix equitable to SV. We have a low cost of living, affordable…

Phoenix is often not included when discussing tech cities, and I think it's a shame I've spent time in Phoenix. It's the land of enormous roads and parking lots. It's almost impossible to get anywhere without a car. Traffic is horrendous all the time. There is barely a functioning downtown. The urban layout isn't conducive to the density necessary to really sustain light rail. Yes, I know about the line that goes fro…

> Traffic is horrendous all the time.

I don't know where you got this, I live in Phoenix metro (Scottsdale) and traffic is generally great except for rush hour, and even then it's just I-10 that is really bad. It's true that stuff is fairly sprawled, but I can generally get _anywhere_ within 45 minutes, and the stuff I actually want to get to in less than 30. Plus the airport is right in the middle instead of out in the middle of nowhere, so it's much more accessible too.

As for the rest of your comment, well, OK then.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#119

Post by mucker »

mucker wrote: post #115
humbleMouse wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a native of Minneapolis proper and I would say move here to South Minneapolis. The suburbs suck and are absolutely terrible unless upper middle class white bumpkins are your crowd. South Minneapolis and midtown are super cool and you can still buy in before full gentrification kicks in.

Wow. That's the most racist thing I've read in a while.

Fascinating, facts hurt. Try rewriting that with "white" swapped for "black" and see how uncomfortable it feels. Of course, there are those who's racism is so broken they probably won't feel anything.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#120

Post by dpeck »

agentgt wrote: post #113

I'm particularly biased as I went to school at GaTech but Atlanta has greatly improved over the last decade or so. It obviously has a completely different social, ethnic and economic diversity than SF does as well as being far far more cost effective. It also has real BBQ as well as being not that far from Miami (my favorite city but not good to live/work in). I would recommend Boston (where I currently live) except…

Atlanta has a lot of good stuff going for it, midtown area and the tech village up in Buckhead have some promising startups.

Few other south eastern cities to add to OPs list:

Charlotte isn't bad either and has a similar if less developed vibe, lot of financial business around there. People seem split on whether they like it or Raleigh more, seems like a toss up.

For a smaller city Chatanooga has a lot going for it.

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