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Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

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Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#241

Post by jamiesonbecker »

madcaptenor wrote: post #240
jamiesonbecker wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High property taxes are a myth. Slightly higher, yes. However, you can choose your tax rate by choosing a subdivision right next door. Subdivs w/ larger, more expensive homes tend to have lower tax rates. 3% at $100k home is common, 2.5% at $500k home. Depends on community amenities. About half of the collected tax go directly to your local school district, and small slices to various community services, fire, police…

Rentals have no property tax, of course. Someone's paying that tax, even though it's not the tenant. That's going to get passed through to the tenant in the form of higher rents.

That was kinda my point. :) Compare the rents. Yes, of course the homeowner has to cover costs, but apples to apples the rents in Austin are 50% or even less vs San Jose.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#242

Post by raincom »

briandear wrote: post #52
SwellJoe wrote: post #19

I suspect the cost of living data for Austin trails reality by some significant margin. The sources don't indicate the age of the data, but even if it's only a couple of years old, it's going to be wrong by enough to be a factor. I have lived in Austin for a couple of years, and also lived here (and owned a house here) about 8 years ago. The cost of homes here has gone up tremendously since then. I was shopping for a…

So the question is, how much does that Mountain View place cost today? You don't need 1 million to buy a decent house in Austin. In SV/San Fran, good luck.

Average $1.8M for 3b/3b in Mt View. $1.2 for 2b/1b. I paid $1600 for 2b/2b for a decent apartment (2625 California St) in Mountain View--in 2001. Now the same apartment goes for $3200.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#243

Post by megablast »

s3nnyy wrote: post #43
BSousa wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But do you think you are the exception or the norm? I've looked into Zurich real-estate last year and 1000CHF wouldn't even come close to the prices I saw for a small 2br. The idea of the average adjustments is to get a general idea of the cost of living.

I am an exception as I rent a room for 500 CHF (the norm is 750-1000 CHF). Also, I pay 200 CHF for the cheapest insurance. Then, I budget about 300 CHF to buy food. If you insist on renting a nice 2bd aparment, you can do so for 2500 CHF in Zurich-city. If you move just slightly out of town, prices drop. I live on the southern end of town and my company is in the north. It takes me only 35 min to go through the whole…

> Also, I pay 200 CHF for the cheapest insurance.

What insurance do you buy? And do you live at home?

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#244

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jkot wrote: post #95
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't be pulling in any local income in those cities (all work would be remote, you would be dodging thai taxes on income taxed in a western country), so it wouldn't be a very realistic comparison.

Not really: http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html Also there are many people who are permanent and pay Thai taxes.

Yes, but if your income is usa sourced but you are working in Chiangmai, both the thai and U.S. governments have first dibs on taxes, there is no tax treaty that can help you.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#245

Post by vinceguidry »

serve_yay wrote: post #167
vinceguidry wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This attitude is, quite frankly, pathetic. People have no respect for their craft.

On the contrary! We just conceive it differently than you :)

Craft is not a personal conceit. You're thinking about art. And even then, most arts have a craft. Knowing your craft usually makes you a better artist, but is not strictly necessary.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#246

Post by stakecounter »

nostrademons wrote: post #219
Spooky23 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The life hack to actually come out ahead is to avoid these places and find a good opportunity in a cheaper place. I don't know a lot about Austin, but I'm familiar with NYC, and I think that example works too. If you define the "cool" part of NYC as being in Manhattan, once you have a family it's irrelevant, because you can't live there... like 98% of everyone else, you end up in Jersey, the boroughs, or Long Island.…

The other life hack people do is to move to SF or NYC out of college, try to "make it", live like a grad student, bank a large savings cushion, and then retire to a cheaper place with a high quality of life when they want to have a family. I have a few friends at Google who, after working there for close to 10 years, now are thinking about retiring to Portland, or Vermont, or North Carolina. The idea has certainly cr…

This is pretty much what I'm doing right now. When I moved to Seattle for a new development job I found roommates on Craigslist instead of paying about twice as much to rent a 1 BR. I'm now saving way more money than I otherwise would have, and I don't fall into the high spending trap because the people I spend most of my time with have more reasonable incomes that encourage frugality.

I don't have a target net worth or age for when I'll call it quits but the way I see it, I'm buying flexibility for the future without sacrificing any happiness today.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#247

Post by shanemhansen »

Sadly there's no data for Utah. Salt Lake City has an amazing ratio between software developer salaries and cost of living. 6 figure salaries are the norm for non-junior developers. According to trulia, housing is about half the price (450k vs 950k).

It's hardly a technical wasteland either, historically or economically. Utah was the 3rd or 4th node on what became the internet. Alan Kay began research on what he would later call "object oriented programming" at the University of Utah.

In the startup world Utah is number 7 when it comes to venture funding http://siliconslopes.com/blog/2015/01/19/utah-ranks-7th-nati.... Personally, I've spent time working for a google venture funded Utah based startup.

I've had multiple offers to relocate to areas like Sydney, Las Vegas, Seattle and they've never been able to beat Utah's salary to cost of living ratio.

Also, having the world's best snowboarding and mountain biking is a perk for some of us.

Of course the one thing that beats working for a Utah company and living in Utah is working remotely for Bay Area company and living in Utah. Win/Win.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#248

Post by jessedhillon »

eranation wrote: post #186
kingnothing wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also surprised Atlanta isn't on the list. I live here for now, but my main gripe is that there isn't much to do in or near the city. We don't have any worthwhile natural features like mountains, lakes, or beaches, and the cultural scene (museums, etc) is a joke.

We can change that! :) If more companies will move from SF / NY to Atlanta / Alpharetta - there will be more things todo. I agree that seeing the Aquarium, Fernbank, High museum once is pretty much enough for a lifetime, but what about top golf? the new avalon? things are getting more and more interesting... ;)

I feel like you're trying hard to reframe the situation so as not to admit the obvious fact here -- that your tastes are, by big city standards, somewhat dull.

It's fine if you like living in a place with one museum, an aquarium and a golf club. But don't frame it like there's some mystery about why people choose to pay multiple times your costs to live in big cities: that's where the culture is. Your Atlanta suburb is not an alternative to SF, it's a place where you can live because you simply don't care for the things that draw many others to SF. There's no need to compare the two.

Re: Cities with High Salary to Cost of Living Ratios for Software Developers

#249

Post by ldng »

disputin wrote: post #79
ldng wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'd love to see the said for London, Paris and say Brussels and Madrid. I'm pretty sure we'd have surprises (or maybe not ...)

This doesn't have developer salaries, but might be of interest. Edit: Forgot the link: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

But precisely, that's the interesting part. For instance COL in Madrid and Barcelona are similar yet salaries in Barcelona are lower. It's kind of the point of the article, crossing COL data and salaries after taxes. COL alone in itself gives a hint but it's not enough.
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