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San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

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Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#321

Post by jdhawk »

Apocryphon wrote: post #260
runT1ME wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the argument against your move would be potential future earnings. If you top out at your current salary, you made the right choice. But if you continue on an upward trajectory, what do you think the top money (as an employee) could possibly be in Austin? Now compare that to the Bay. I'd guess it's not even close, no?

Would the potential future earnings be sufficient to purchase a home in SF? That's comparable to what he or she could get in Austin?

It matters on when. Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in the US for this exact reason. Its having a HUGE impact on the price of housing. What I bought in 2009 is now worth double (good for me, bad for new buyers).

We have shit transportation infrastructure & the housing market is (for us) insane.

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#322

Post by jazzyk »

whack wrote: post #111

It's hard to overstate the impact this is going to have on San Francisco, long-term. As Technology becomes the most important industry in America, a well-governed San Francisco could have positioned itself as the next NYC. The hub where all of tech gathers, the same way all of finance gathered in Wall St. Replace the 70 year old 2-storey homes with Manhattan style apartment buildings, and rent in San Francisco would…

Boston is not "just another city..." It is possibly the best educated metropolitan area in the world.

"Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, come out on top — attracting more than twice as many citations per paper as the global average."

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101020/full/467906a.html

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#323

Post by CamperBob2 »

mahyarm wrote: post #315
msoad wrote: post #235

I live in a high rise in SF and pay $4400 for a one bedroom. Although it sounds expensive but it's like $800 more than the least expensive place we could find near this place but it's a well built apartment with lots of amenities. I thought about moving out of SF but I don't have any social connection outside of San Francisco. Plus weather is very nice here and there are lots of diverse cultural events happening in S…

Why not move to oakland or similar? Rent is like half in the nice areas, and even less in the not so nice areas.

Life's too short to spend any more of it in Oakland than necessary.

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#324

Post by mountaineer22 »

jimminy wrote: post #205
timr wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a well-governed San Francisco could have positioned itself as the next NYC. The hub where all of tech gathers, the same way all of finance gathered in Wall St. Replace the 70 year old 2-storey homes with Manhattan style apartment buildings, and rent in San Francisco would have remained very reasonable, despite the rapid economic growth. This would have prevented exactly this problem where tech workers are forced to…

The fact that everything closed so early blew me away, when I moved there. Compared to the middle of nowhere WV it made zero sense. Even the grocery stores closed by midnight in SF. In WV, you can find food at most places until 12-1am 7 days a week. And the major local grocery is a Walmart, which is open 24 hours. Last Easter I had no clue nothing would be open, and didn't prepare for that. So I just had some crap pi…

Where in WV?

I can't find food after 10pm.

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#326

Post by mahyarm »

TranquilMarmot wrote: post #127
bogomipz wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really - "This is the most thriving technical community in the entire world"? I'm calling BS. Have you been to New York City recently? Rents for a 1 bedroom are nowhere near that. Lets talk about that community - there are meetups? Wow. You can go to a meetup on any night of the week in New York or Austin. Besides that explain "the community"? Oh you go out and drink craft beers after work? You can do that anywhere.…

I don't agree with the amount of vitriol in your comment, but I agree with the overall sentiment. I feel like tech workers in San Francisco are fully bought-in to the "this is the best and only place to be if you're in tech" idea. So much so that they can't quite see that the grass is just as green on the other side, so to speak. You have to be fully bought-in to it, there's no other way you would be able to justify…

I live in oakland, which is like living in beacon hill in seattle if your commute was driving to microsoft. Rent for me is only a few hundred dollars a month more, and I get paid better in the bay then I would working in seattle. You can also get 1 bedroom apartments close to palo alto caltrain for about $2500, which is a fairly premium place to live. There are many places in the bay area where the rent isn't $4500 for a 1 bedroom, and your a fool if you go rent those places.

The price for newcomers is far higher than the price for people who lived here 5 years ago.

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#327

Post by vkou »

derefr wrote: post #284
jimminy wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that everything closed so early blew me away, when I moved there. Compared to the middle of nowhere WV it made zero sense. Even the grocery stores closed by midnight in SF. In WV, you can find food at most places until 12-1am 7 days a week. And the major local grocery is a Walmart, which is open 24 hours. Last Easter I had no clue nothing would be open, and didn't prepare for that. So I just had some crap pi…

Everything closing at 9PM is pretty much par for the course here in Vancouver, another city with the skyrocketing cost-of-living thing going on. I wonder if there's a correlation. Maybe everyone is rich enough to pay delivery services or maids or something to get their shopping done while they're at work, so there's no demand for 24-hour businesses? Then again, another thing with Vancouver (that I think I've heard sa…

I think that reasonable (For the employees) grocery hours are more of a Canadian thing, rather then a skyrocketing cost-of-living one. Businesses in Victoria, Kamloops, etc close up around the same time.

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#328

Post by astrodust »

whack wrote: post #111

It's hard to overstate the impact this is going to have on San Francisco, long-term. As Technology becomes the most important industry in America, a well-governed San Francisco could have positioned itself as the next NYC. The hub where all of tech gathers, the same way all of finance gathered in Wall St. Replace the 70 year old 2-storey homes with Manhattan style apartment buildings, and rent in San Francisco would…

> 20 years on, San Francisco could have become what New York City is today.

Hilarious. No. Absolutely not. To even compare the cities on this level is an insult to what New York is and how it came about.

San Francisco is a dinky little town compared to New York, the population is comfortably under a million people. It will take another hundred years of perfect planning and growth to catch up to where NYC is today.

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#329

Post by astrodust »

tryitnow wrote: post #300
whack wrote: post #111

It's hard to overstate the impact this is going to have on San Francisco, long-term. As Technology becomes the most important industry in America, a well-governed San Francisco could have positioned itself as the next NYC. The hub where all of tech gathers, the same way all of finance gathered in Wall St. Replace the 70 year old 2-storey homes with Manhattan style apartment buildings, and rent in San Francisco would…

If high-rise development solved the problem of high rents, then why is Manhatten so expensive? Thought experiment: Let's say we do massive high density development in SF. A bunch of people move in, but now that SF is denser it's more desirable, so demand has increased as well, which drives rents right back up. Now we're stuck where we were before: high rents. Having said that, I still support high density development…

Just imagine how ludicrous rents in Manhattan would be if the buildings were all 50% their current height.

Re: San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents

#330

Post by jonny_eh »

qntty wrote: post #213
sfotoatx wrote: post #130

Lots of naysayers on HN, but I left SF last year and moved to Austin. I have zero regrets. In SF, my 1 bedroom, 650 square foot apartment in SOMA went from $2,600 to $3,200 over 3 years. In Austin, my salary went down $10k to $120k/yr. My 2 bedroom, 1,100 square foot apartment is $1,150/mo. The tech scene here isn't as vibrant as SF, but there's still plenty of great meet ups. All in all, yes there are some things I…

Sorry if this is off-topic (and maybe a bit personal), but as a recent graduate, I'm not sure what I would do with all that extra money. What do you (or most people) generally spend it on? I make less than that, but if I didn't have student loans, I wouldn't know what to do with it besides leave it in the bank.

Tesla, Oculus Rift, gaming rigs, comic books. Dating too, I guess.
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