Pittsburgh. Housing prices are ~20% below the national average and we have a growing technology sector with CMU and offices for Google, Apple, and Uber employees. Some startups here, like Duolingo. This is technically the rust belt, but you can still find "big city" amenities with a small town feel.
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?
#22I am biased but I liked Chicago. You can get a good house for a decent price. If you want to raise a family though, inside the city schools suck - you have to play a lottery or try to test into a good school or pay for private. That said you won't find startup jobs like SF, a lot of the top paying jobs like NYC are in finance.
Pricing for housing is definitely cheaper in Chicago but the pay sucks. It's not uncommon for lead-engineers to make < 6-figures. Tech is definitely not a priority in that city which may or may not be a bad thing.
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#23I moved from SF to LA, and then to NYC. All great places, but all very pricey.
If I was looking to keep costs down, I'd take a serious look at New Orleans. Obviously purchasing a house there might be riskier (since much of the city is below sea level), but they've got a burgeoning tech scene, lots of media companies, and the culture+food can't be beat.
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#24Repping Raleigh here. There is a decent startup scene and housing is very reasonable. $1200 for a 2 bed/ 2 bath apartment with garage that is about 10 minutes from my office and less than 20 minutes to downtown. Weather is nice and there are plenty of firms moving to the area. The only downside is that traffic is increasing, but there is enough sprawl it is not a huge issue. Startups are coming out of major universit…
Shh! (Everything the parent said is true, and I agree.)
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#25Seattle's housing costs are definitely rising but Washington's lack of an income tax is a boon for software engineers. Also, many of the big players in tech will pay within 10-20% of their bay area total comp packages in Seattle, so your take home pay might be almost the same, but of course your dollar is going to go a lot further.
I ran some numbers comparing Seattle, Denver, and Minneapolis, and found the descending housing prices and ascending state income taxes more or less cancelled each other out in my situation. Of course everyone's circumstances are a little different, so this may not be true for everyone.
Seattle definitely seemed to have the best opportunities at the big players in tech outside of SF/SV.
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#26Make sure to skip Denver. Nothing but stoners and Peyton fans. Terrible place to live.
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#27Phoenix 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 housing (I bought my first house at 21 and I wasn't rich) and the weather is amazing.
If you ever check out Phoenix, I'm happy to show you around.
Edit: It's even an easy transition. We also call this the valley (of the sun)!
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#28I've worked remotely for Silicon Valley companies from Victoria, Canada, and it's great, even though the startup scene is just in its infancy. Same time zone, housing isn't insane like the valley or like Vancouver, beautiful climate, good university, etc. The largest drawback is that once you're ready to do your own startup, VCs are all "Victoria? WTF? You can't build a real company there...", so you're stuck bootstrapping...
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#29We just moved to Seattle from SF. Highly recommended, but as you say more expensive than Portland (still 1/2 the price of the bay area). Cost follows opportunity, and it is harder to find a tech scene in Portland. NYC is a great place to live (have done so), and I would pick it over Seattle (at least for a year or two) if you don't have kids, are young, and can afford it. Chicago is great, less tech than NYC/Seattle,…
Here here, 'Den-where?' stinks.
Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?
#30Boston/Cambridge is hot but there has always been a strong tech scene here so it's not so much up and coming. Cambridge is on top of their game, Boston is doing really well despite its city government. The issue with the Boston area is your COL is about the same as SF but your standard of living is a bit lower due to the usual culprits (NIMBY, poor govt leadership, New England conservatism, etc) and just plainly the housing stock is old. If I had to guess I'd guess your money actually goes further in SF than in Boston because you get newer construction, with bigger floor plans and more modern amenities.