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Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

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Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#281

Post by jhatemyjob »

scoofy wrote: post #257
minhazm wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any idea what housing costs in the bay area though? We can compare between the zipcodes of Gigafactory Texas and Fremont. According to Redfin the median sale price for 78725 (Austin) is $362k, compared to $1.225 million for 94538 (Fremont). That's more than 3x the price. Compared to California it's definitely affordable. Austin: https://www.redfin.com/zipcode/78725/housing-market Fremont: https://www.redf…

I mean, to be fair, 78725 is effectively the middle of nowhere in Austin. It makes sense if Musk's goal was to choose a fairly undeveloped exurb, but the gigafactory is as close to Manor and Webberville as it is to central Austin. I know Fremont is suburban, but it's a well incorporated suburb to both SF, Oakland and San Jose. 78725 is on the opposite side of Austin from most of the fancy neighborhoods.

You're joking, right? It's 20 minutes away from downtown.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#283

Post by xoa »

darawk wrote: post #146
cjensen wrote: post #76

When CEOs move, they often move their headquarters closer to where they live. Somehow Tesla managed to survive all the problems of California until shortly after Musk moved to Texas. Folks talking about the advantages and disadvantages of California vs Texas may be overthinking this.

I mean, you could just as easily argue that the problems of California are what caused his move to Texas, as simply testing the waters for the move of the HQ.

>I mean, you could just as easily argue that the problems of California are what caused his move to Texas

Who knows. But the biggest fundamental problem for California here honestly is geography: Boca Chica is the best single land based potential BEO spaceport in the continental US, simple as that. That's why SpaceX is there. As close to the equator as they can get, with a lot of water in front of most of the launch paths they want, and no urban buildup there. For the small percentage of polar orbits they'll want to do there will remain Vandenberg, or eventually converted oil rigs for sea launch, but the vast majority of SpaceX's cadence for the foreseeable future will be Starship going to more standard orbits where the bulk of Starlink will exist or eventually beyond Earth's orbit for trips to Mars.

Sure taxes and all the typical rigamarole that typically comes up in these discussions might have weighed a little one way or another, and in the vast majority of CEO/HQ moves weigh quite a bit. But to the extent that SpaceX is the biggest guiding unified dream of Elon Musk, and given the constraints of logistics, economics and the physics of orbital launch, it basically had to be there. Which means he has to be there. Which means it's a lot easier even for someone with a private jet if the HQ of his other big enterprise is around 300mi away nearly due north in the same TZ vs ~1650mi west.

If for some reason the jobs situation and housing was just perfectly impossible in Texas maybe he would have sucked it up but even then I doubt it given his (and Tesla's) resources. At the end of the day like everyone else he can't buy more than 24 hours in a day. He can buy more efficient use of them.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#284

Post by thebradbain »

bdowling wrote: post #269
jdhn wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If California somehow repealed Prop 13, you would see their property tax rate zoom up to the point where Texas property taxes wouldn't seem that outrageous by comparison.

> If California somehow repealed Prop 13... In November 2020, California scaled back on some of the benefits of Prop 13 for families. Prior to Prop 19, properties could pass from parents to children and the property tax basis would not increase. Now, the benefit is limited to the parents' primary residence, the inheriting child or children need to reside in the property for one year as their primary residence, and th…

Well, considering most of those heirs who are not using it as their primary home would just end up using those homes to rent out at market rate anyways, it makes sense to tax it. If they don't want to deal with that, they can just sell it. Commercial properties over $3 million were also affected. Those moving into the inherited home as their primary residence a̶r̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶f̶f̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ EDIT (see comment below): *will be re-assessed, but includes a generous exclusion of the first $1 million.

I'm a would-be beneficiary of Prop 13 Pre-19 and a homeowner in Los Angeles, and even I voted for this reform. I would vote to repeal Prop 13 in whole if I could. Prop 13 was originally meant to protect middle-class Californians from losing their primary home (for which other alternatives exist: see TX. Your primary home cannot be taken from you for tax reasons or in bankruptcy) – not a tax loophole for generational wealth.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#285

Post by throw0101a »

boringg wrote: post #220
etchalon wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who just bought a house in Austin this year, if the reason is "affordable housing", they're in for a world of hurt.

I mean are you seriously comparing affordability of Austin to the bay area? My sense is that you have only lived in Austin and thus don't know how squeezed things are in the bay area. Not trying to be rude but just trying to point out how much more affordable Austin is relative to the bay area.

> I mean are you seriously comparing affordability of Austin to the bay area?

How is the sprawl in Austin compared to the Bay Area?

A lot of times land/housing is cheap/er, but you 'pay' for that will long/er commutes in bad traffic. And often with few/no options for public transit.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#286

Post by refurb »

hindsightbias wrote: post #155
Apocryphon wrote: post #56

The official reason is because of housing: "To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California," Musk said. "Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it's jammed." But, he added, "It's tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away....There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area." https://ww…

Wait until they see their property taxes and valuations jumping 20% a year. No Prop 13 there. I loved Austin, and lived there twice, but you can stick a fork in it now. Maybe in 20 years when they’ve finished the I-35 reimagining.

If it’s your primary residence your tax increases are capped. But nowhere close to Prop 13, but I guess we like Prop 13 now when we benefit?

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#288

Post by gonehome »

etchalon wrote: post #141
Apocryphon wrote: post #56

The official reason is because of housing: "To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California," Musk said. "Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it's jammed." But, he added, "It's tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away....There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area." https://ww…

As someone who just bought a house in Austin this year, if the reason is "affordable housing", they're in for a world of hurt.

It's not even close - a crappy house on the peninsula is 1.7M, with the median closer to 2.5-3M.

I mean, look at this: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/3785-Park-Blvd-94306/hom...

I think Austin is better about building too, meanwhile in the Bay Area they just rejected units desperately needed in the tenderloin because they might become a "tech dorm".

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#289

Post by Apocryphon »

boringg wrote: post #275
scoofy wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>budding Literally Dell Computers is from Austin.

Has Dell done anything innovative since the 90s? It repackaged computer hardware in a cheap package filled to the brim with bloatware.

They're not the only company in the region:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Hills

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#290

Post by refurb »

SauciestGNU wrote: post #249
philwelch wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those poor, powerless, persecuted politicians.

Politicians are at least theoretically accountable to an electorate, whereas egomaniacal billionaires are accountable to nobody.

Exactly! The only people who should be able to spout off on things are the powerless. Cant have politicians being called out by people who hold actual sway.
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