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Housing in the Bay Area

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Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#191

Post by mc32 »

meddlepal wrote: post #170
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It rains too much, like 14 months per year is just rain. And the Seattle freeze...ya, people in Seattle don't like to talk to other people, it is like Northern Europe. /s We've always made up crazy lies just to keep the Californians away, but ultimately it isn't working. Seattle is a nice place to live/work, and has plenty of jobs for techies.

As a Bostonian none of this rain or cold stuff bothers me. Visiting Seattle for the first time next month for DockerCon and I'm super excited!

It's not very cold at all --it might snow a couple of times a year --it drizzles 6 months out of the year, but it's okay. OP was putting a front hence the "/s"

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#192

Post by muzz »

rajacombinator wrote: post #181

A benevolent dictator could bulldoze easily upwards of 50% of housing in areas like the sunset, entire peninsula, and Oakland, and replace it with high quality, high density condos that would increase quality of living by at least 10x, while reducing costs by 50%. But, alas, we got kleptocrats.

Yes, property rights are a pesky thing

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#193

Post by joeskyyy »

incepted wrote: post #140
nostrebored wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow the city with the highest average salary/cost of living usually goes unmentioned... Seattle has two huge tech companies, a lot of mid sized tech companies, and a growing startup scene... and it's not that far away from the bay.

On top of the weather, which is a big deal to a lot of people, the problem is exactly in what you said: there are two huge tech companies. And that's it. Basically, if you move to Seattle, you are pretty much restricted to working for Microsoft or Amazon and that's it. Period. Nothing else. It's a huge career limiting move, make sure you're okay with it.

Microsoft and Amazon only you say? Don't know where you'd get that data from.

Google has a big campus here in Fremont and Kirkland, and they're building a huge new complex in South Lake Union (Amazon's stomping grounds).

Facebook just opened their brand new office in SLU.

Samsung is here. Adobe is here. Atlassian is here. Uber is here. DocuSign is here.

Expand the metro area to Bellevue (since we included Microsoft above) add companies like Redfin, Zillow, Expedia, FICO, Disney.

Edit: Oh yeah, forgot Intel and EMC as well.

I'm sure there's many I missed but there's WAY more than just Microsoft and Amazon.

... Just don't tell anyone. Go to Portland instead. I hear they want you ;)

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#194

Post by joshrotenberg »

jackfoxy wrote: post #97
fintler wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> San Francisco is the largist metropolitan area with the most wilderness/open space around it in the world. It's high on the list, but it's not the one with the most: Vienna 51% Singapore 47% Sydney 46% Hong Kong 40% 70% is the total green space 40% is protected Rio De Janeiro 40% London 38.40% Almost 40%! Stockholm 30% Johannesburg-Gauteng 24% New York City 19.7 % or 14% Park Score/World Culture Report San Francisc…

Believable (17.9%) if you are measuring only within the S.F. city limits. San Mateo and Marin counties and the East Bay have huge tracts of open space for metropolitan areas.

I'm always amazed at how much open, undeveloped space one can see looking eastish when up in Tilden Park out here in the East Bay. It's fantastic.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#195

Post by gorkemyurt »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #25

Even if this bill passes and substantially more multi-family housing starts getting built, do not be surprised if house prices remain extremely high. Vancouver doesn't have the same anti-development issues that SF has, and has been building multi-unit condos and apartments all over the region for decades. Multi-unit housing starts are about at its highest level ever. The average price of a detached house however is C…

A one bedroom condo in downtown Vancouver is very affordable compared to San Francisco.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#196

Post by eweise »

apsec112 wrote: post #86
carapace wrote: post #65

I'm in favor of how "building in the Bay Area is approved by discretion", I call it having some power over what gets built. "Democracy" y'know? I'm from SF. I grew up here. I'm also a computer nerd. To me, the tech "industry" has been ruining the city I love since the Dot-Com boom. To me, they are an invading army culturally speaking. In a very real sense my home is being destroyed. The saddest part is, this city kin…

"To me, the tech "industry" has been ruining the city I love since the Dot-Com boom. To me, they are an invading army culturally speaking. In a very real sense my home is being destroyed." Isn't this just what natives say about every group of immigrants? The West Coast, in particular, has seen this before: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DXu9eKM4kJI/T_D5ucc8SPI/AAAAAAAABK...

Not sure you can equate the Chinese race with computer geeks.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#197

Post by ojbyrne »

jevinskie wrote: post #160

There is so much pressure, career-wise, to move to either the Bay Area, the West Coast in general, or a major urban hub. I honestly like living in a semi-rural part of the Midwest. I like seeing fields and forests while driving to work. If I want to get out to some wilderness, I can do so in 15-30 minutes. I travel in a car that, I feel, offers me freedom. To boot, I have a nice, reserved spot in the garage below my…

Certainly good points, but one of the unique things about the Bay Area,especially compared to the east coast megalopolis, is that you can also be in the wilderness in 15-30 minutes.

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#198

Post by jballanc »

jevinskie wrote: post #176
morgante wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My cost of living is very cheap. My commute is 15 minutes. I live close to my family. Why should I want to leave? You shouldn't. If you have a good job in such a location and are happy with the opportunities available, enjoy! The problem is that markets naturally congregate in distinct locations so anyone who is looking to advance their career needs to make their way to a hub.

I am enjoying my time here. :) I just am a bit anxious because my speciality means there is just one player in the area. Outside of that speciality, there are other attractive, but not my calling, opportunities. This also complicates my conundrum about whether to continue to rent vs purchasing some property to start some real roots.

Why not work remotely?

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#199

Post by studentrob »

hiphipjorge wrote: post #150
studentrob wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Y'all "young gods" will just have to figure out some other place to hatch the singularity. Lol. I've always found it amazing how many people run towards SV. Software is cool because you can do it from anywhere. To each his own, I guess.

Your statement is not false, but if you're into software engineering it's awesome know so many people who are world-class engineers. I've heard from multiple people that they've grown more in a year of being in SV than the 5 years before. Why? Because a lot of their friends are engineers (Kinda sucks too but...), you casually meet a lot of people working in cool stuff, you go to a lot of really really good meetups, a…

I can see that. I'm just optimistic that more and more regions will grow to have local VC capital, startup experience, and engineer-dense environments.

I've situated myself in southern Taiwan. I may be the only foreign coder in the city, haha, and the startup scene is almost entirely up north around Taipei, but I hope that changes =)

Re: Housing in the Bay Area

#200

Post by [deleted] »

incepted wrote: post #140
nostrebored wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow the city with the highest average salary/cost of living usually goes unmentioned... Seattle has two huge tech companies, a lot of mid sized tech companies, and a growing startup scene... and it's not that far away from the bay.

On top of the weather, which is a big deal to a lot of people, the problem is exactly in what you said: there are two huge tech companies. And that's it. Basically, if you move to Seattle, you are pretty much restricted to working for Microsoft or Amazon and that's it. Period. Nothing else. It's a huge career limiting move, make sure you're okay with it.

[deleted]
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