161–170 of 199 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paying an extra $1.5k per month on rent isn't insane when it gets you $50 or $100k additional annual salary.
But if you're purely remote you're banking that extra money
It's really hard to beat living and working in San Francisco. Having lived here a few years I find costs highly overstated for single people . e.g. some costs: Studio in Lower Haight (water + trash included): $2100/month Utilities: $50 Monthly Muni: $81 Groceries are no more expensive than anywhere else. Eating out is similar vs other cities I've been to, and if anything the quality of the food is better here at the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My first thought about Rural Alabama is how much I'd hate that sociopolitical environment (I'm black) Granted I googled Sylacauga and the first line on their website is >Sylacauga (syl-a-cau-ga) is a progressive community where all the pieces fit. So they're aware of the image which is a pretty good sign... But I'm not doing these cities/towns that are "progressive" oases in vast deserts of backwards communities ever…
You can find an apartment to buy in any neighborhood in Chicago for $200k. Same spaces in SF would be around $1M. Maybe Chicago would be a palatable alternative to rural Alabama?
I don't even want to imply there are no backwards communities right on the doorsteps of the major cities that everyone just kind of sweeps under the rug.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
$1.5k is generous...it's more like $500-$1k maybe. I'm lucky to have my own place in SF but most people have roommates because SF rentals is mostly houses, but if you lived nearly anywhere else you'd almost certainly find your own place and not scramble to find a roommate. So you go from paying $2k/month with roommates to maybe $1.5k/month without. Not a huge difference.
Not having roommates is 100% worth not saving a whole ton of money to me. Fuck having roommates.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I also grew up in a semi rural town, on the East Coast, and I wouldn’t ever want to go back. If you’re a minority, in an interracial relationship, or are LGBT, living in a rural area can have serious quality of life issues that often aren’t mentioned.
"often aren't mentioned"? Nothing could be further from the truth. Literally 100% of the time that anywhere in the US outside of the major tech cities gets brought up, the comments are full of people claiming that the inhabitants of those areas are racist, stupid, dangerous, unwelcoming, or otherwise bad and undesirable to be near. The double-standards on this website are mind boggling, for how casually and openly pe…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know about Italy but in the US fixing up an old house in bad condition can be extremely expensive and time consuming. Cheaper to buy empty land and build a new one.
A significant portion of homeowners do a significant portion of the work themselves. I wouldn't say it's expected that you'll DIY everything but someone buying a house that needs substantial work without the intention of doing at least some of it themselves would certainly raise eyebrows.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I somewhat relate to your view as a non-white POC. However, I don't think > they'll eventually lose the power they had. would do much to change the situation. Georgia, Virginia and Texas are states that are being fundamentally changed because of the influx of progressives from both rural areas and urban coasts. The fastest way to change seems to be to move to these places and use the democratic process to introduce r…
> Georgia, Virginia and Texas are states that are being fundamentally changed because of the influx of progressives from both rural areas and urban coasts. Why are progressives moving en mass so much that that are able to replace the local population and fundamentally alter voting patterns? What is happening to drive people out like that? I'm not an American for the record and likely am missing parts of the context h…
The advent of mass air conditioning made the climates much more bearable to live in, fueling economic expansion. Otherwise it’d be too hot and humid.
It's really hard to beat living and working in San Francisco. Having lived here a few years I find costs highly overstated for single people . e.g. some costs: Studio in Lower Haight (water + trash included): $2100/month Utilities: $50 Monthly Muni: $81 Groceries are no more expensive than anywhere else. Eating out is similar vs other cities I've been to, and if anything the quality of the food is better here at the…
Transport does cost me more. I estimate my vehicle's ongoing TCO amounts to ~$250/month (purchase, registration, gas, repairs, insurance, etc.). (It's also worth noting that having a lower monthly TCO for a vehicle than me is possible. The math on an acquaintance's used vehicle brings TCO to ~ $150/month barring major repairs, with him driving more than me.) And of course if you have a fancier car it's more expensive.
So far as "housing costs" go, my total home costs (homeowners insurance, utilities, property taxes, internet, etc.) are less than half yours even treating my mortgage payment/home equity as a total loss. Which is to say cost of living is drastically more expensive in the Bay Area.
But more pertinent to your comment, car ownership is not cheap, but the difference in housing costs between SF and elsewhere is massively more than the cost of operating a vehicle.
Likewise, if I wanted a 2 Bed/ 2 Bath place like mine or a similar flat in SF, I think it'd be more like $4k/month.
So while I do agree it's possible to live in SF for maybe less than you'd expect, it's still very expensive.
That last time I did the math on it, supposedly ~$85k where I am in Arizona was about equivalent to ~$120k in the SF Bay Area, but the SF Bay Area seemed like it'd have lower quality of life. (Though maybe going carless would help more than I think with QoL.) And in general there's sort of a pattern, where at every pay level SF Bay Area has to increase pay by more to match elsewhere for less.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A significant portion of homeowners do a significant portion of the work themselves. I wouldn't say it's expected that you'll DIY everything but someone buying a house that needs substantial work without the intention of doing at least some of it themselves would certainly raise eyebrows.
Which is why I said time consuming. Since time is finite you also can't simply discount it versus spending money and consider it a net savings.
You're making the same error about opportunity cost as the classic "it's not worth Bill Gates' time to pick up a $100 bill" fallacy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I also grew up in a semi rural town, on the East Coast, and I wouldn’t ever want to go back. If you’re a minority, in an interracial relationship, or are LGBT, living in a rural area can have serious quality of life issues that often aren’t mentioned.
"often aren't mentioned"? Nothing could be further from the truth. Literally 100% of the time that anywhere in the US outside of the major tech cities gets brought up, the comments are full of people claiming that the inhabitants of those areas are racist, stupid, dangerous, unwelcoming, or otherwise bad and undesirable to be near. The double-standards on this website are mind boggling, for how casually and openly pe…
In my daily sheltered life in the Bay Area, I hardly ever see overt racism. And when it happens, it bothers me.
If I’d see it happen on a daily basis, it would seriously impact my quality of life.
I see nothing wrong with saying: don’t move to this or that place because racism is rampant, even if 75% of inhabitants are not.