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Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

wsj.com

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Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#121

Post by scarface74 »

zer00eyz wrote: post #69
skybrian wrote: post #58

This is better both for San Francisco and Texas, from a load-balancing perspective. Unless housing can catch up, large companies shouldn't be expanding in San Francisco.

Housing and taxes in CA are close to oppressive. The housing situation will not change unless CA voters agree to a change in property taxes and they won't. I would also bet that the move will come at the expense of Texas tax payers and to the benefit of Schwabb.

Sure there is another way for it to change. Companies start moving out of California, the employees follow and the demand lessens.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#122

Post by Aloha »

munin wrote: post #47
atlantacrackers wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever visited? Talked to locals? You might be surprised how friendly people are IRL.

I lived in Dallas and it is the only place I've lived where people would scream homophobic slurs at me in the street. I wouldn't say I'd never move back, but the situation would have to be dire for me to consider it. Definitely cut your hair if you visit.

When did you move away? I've been visiting here on and off for a decade before I decided to move here, and I've never experienced this.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#123

Post by sdnlafkjh34rw »

aphextron wrote: post #43
nthomas wrote: post #7

Welcome to the Lone Star State! Cheap real estate and friendly folks. And BBQ, metric tons of BBQ...

>"Cheap real estate" And the highest property tax rate in the nation.

High property taxes are one of the most liberal policies of Texas. It's a progressive tax that is largely shouldered by rich landowners and the revenue form a large part of budget for public school systems.

I'm not sure why people in California love our regressive Prop 13 tax rebates that largely benefit the wealthy and are a cause of huge budget deficits. Prop 13 is the most Republican policy we have in our state.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#124

Post by take_a_breath »

demosthenes14 wrote: post #57
ramphastidae wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simply haven’t lived here long enough. It’s crazy that you would dismiss a crisis that has been documented and growing for years as an online misinformation campaign because your few months here don’t align with what you’ve read.

I'm not dismissing the crisis- it's a separate conversation that can be had for SF, LA and Seattle. My call out is for this confusing picture painted online that the Bay Area is a crime ridden wasteland that should be avoided at all costs, which simply isn't the case.

Maybe the Bay Area the new Chicago? I see lots of misinformation on Chicago posted for seemingly political reasons.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#125

Post by droopyEyelids »

pjg wrote: post #106

Am I the only one who thinks nobody is talking about the elephant in the room ? i.e. the cause and effect. Fintech companies like Robinhood have popularized the concept of (a) zero fee trading and (b) better UI/UX and just better service/offering on highly scalable platforms that allow them to introduce new products/services, which are virtually impossible for legacy providers like Schwab. Seems like that is the sing…

Keep in mind it's not a technological wave of disruption this time, but a round of venture backed growth companies that compete for users, but do not need to make a profit.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#126

Post by rory096 »

fzeroracer wrote: post #73
CydeWeys wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And traffic out the wazoo, and few good alternatives to driving.

It's going to be funny in 5-10 years when the major Texas cities become the next SF because none of them are planning for any sort of large population growth. Austin already suffers from horrific traffic and poor infrastructure. City planning here is a joke.

Austin has been attempting to create a plan for an extensive zoning rewrite for the last several years. It recently restarted after the previous attempt was abandoned in August 2018 (after spending $8.5 million on consultants) because "it became a political lightning rod for preservationists and neighborhood groups who warned the effort would upend longtime neighborhoods."

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2019/10/04/the-next-...

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#127

Post by shuckles »

smohnot wrote: post #33
driverdan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Westlake does not have cheap real estate.

Relative to Dallas, yes - relative to SF it's quite a bit cheaper. Westlake's median price per square foot is $392, SF is $1068. The surroundings of SF don't get much cheaper. Dallas is $204/sf. https://www.zillow.com/westlake-tx/home-values/ https://www.zillow.com/san-francisco-ca/home-values/ https://www.zillow.com/dallas-tx/home-values/

I think the appropriate measure is median sales price, not price per square foot. Cities show that most people can consume much smaller homes than the median new construction in America, but small homes isn’t as much of an option in this part of Texas.

Re: Schwab Leaves San Francisco for Texas

#128

Post by scarface74 »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #82
lykr0n wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be curious to see the ROI for someone like Schwab for staying in the Bay Area. Does the reduce capital costs of people, taxes, and buildings outweigh the talent pool in the area? Makes me wonder what the numbers look like.

Yes. I'm building a distributed engineering team now (hiring people both inside and outside the bay area). Everyone underestimates how much talent there is outside the core hubs (Bay Area, Seattle, NY, etc). Yes, talent does cluster in those cities, but they don't have a monopoly. There are lots of smart, driven people outside the talent hubs. Also as a sweeping broad generalization that I frankly can't back up with…

Why do I have the feeling that “entitled” is being defined as “they ask for lower salaries that allow the company to keep more of the money they make.”
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