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

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381–390 of 542 posts

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

#381

So are there any tech hubs right now that aren't dealing with issues of rent increases, gentrifications, and growing pains?

Boston seems pretty reasonable in terms of rent, and has pretty good tech community. With exceptional schools, which you have access to for eg. take courses at Harvard, attend events at MIT, MediaLab, or big tech firms like Google, fb etc. And its great if you have kids too as public schools are also highly rated.

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

#382
post #20
post #6

Lots of people want to live in an urban setting. Build more urban neighborhoods, everywhere.

This is the answer. Deregulate housing/small businesse spaces/offices and let the market do its work. It's crazy the amount of regulation there is that pretty much dictates single family detached homes for large swaths of the country. Here in Bend, for instance, you must have a driveway with not one, but two parking spots. Land of the free indeed... http://marketurbanism.com/ Also, this book, although it's pretty hig…

I'm not sure deregulation is actually the answer here. It's more that our municipalities have bought into car oriented design and have adopted a terrible philosophy and awful set of regulations.

We need to regulate good design that leads to compact and efficient communities instead.

My fear with less regulations is that while you could see taller, and denser buildings in some areas, you'd also open up the potential for an increase in sprawl, as lazy developers chasing profits would equally be allowed to build low density sprawl if there was an incentive to.

The local example of this is that in Metro Vancouver it is basically now impossible to build a typical suburban mall. No city will allow it because it's a terrible idea from an urban design and planning point of view. However, two malls have recently been built nonetheless! This happened because the developers found land near the airport and on First Nations land that was outside the jurisdiction of local government, and they could build whatever they wanted with little to no oversight.

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

#383

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…

Plus you don't have state taxes in Texas. I don't know if Austin has city tax but I doubt it.

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

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, quite the opposite. A 500k house becomes 12 $250k 1000sqft condos is the actual math in SFH -> highrise conversion.

Maybe in some other Bay Area, but not here. New construction in the SF Bay Area is almost always "luxury" townhouses and apartments.

I always snort at what people call luxury in the bay area. 'luxury' here is the honda civic equivalent of new housing elsewhere in the USA. This is luxury housing: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2793242/a-95million-...

I'm also surprised that you would still think the math does not apply. A 100 unit building taking up the space of 12 SFH $1.5mm homes will sell many more $800k 2 bedroom apartments comparing what houses and apartments sell for Build about 1000 of the buildings close to bart and muni tunnel stations and you would get 100'000 units for the price of 3000 SFH / in law units and a larger city budget to fund the new required transit system capacity.

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

#385

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…

Just curious: How did you manage to transfer your Bay Area salary to Austin? I would imagine that $120K is a ridiculous amount there. How did you even ask for it with a straight face? Are you making 2X all of your co-workers or something?

HIRED indicates it's not unreasonable at all: http://get.hired.com/rs/348-IPO-044/images/Hired-State-of-Sa...

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

#386
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because I don't want to commute. 2 hours a day worths more than $2000/mo to me. -----

It's more like 1 hr a day on a train if you're close to a bart station. It's closer than living in the sunset for most jobs!

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

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vitriol really? Because I said "BS"? It certainly wasn't meant to be vitriolic, I didn't think there was anything abusive in my post. Exasperation? Yes. Cynicism. Ditto.

Well... the poster suggesting your vitriol does go by the name "Tranquil". If you must know, dismissive phrases such as, "people like you", isn't a mature way to strengthen a counter argument.

Funny. Fair enough. I could have articulated that better. To the OP, I'm sorry it wasn't meant to be mean.

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

#388
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because I don't want to commute. 2 hours a day worths more than $2000/mo to me. -----

Proper mindset

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

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe in some other Bay Area, but not here. New construction in the SF Bay Area is almost always "luxury" townhouses and apartments.

I always snort at what people call luxury in the bay area. 'luxury' here is the honda civic equivalent of new housing elsewhere in the USA. This is luxury housing: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2793242/a-95million-... I'm also surprised that you would still think the math does not apply. A 100 unit building taking up the space of 12 SFH $1.5mm homes will sell many more $800k 2 bedroom apartments comparing w…

That's why I put "luxury" in quotations. A "luxury" townhouse here is simply a very expensive tiny home, thrown together with cheap materials, faux-everything, bland interiors that look like generic hotel rooms, sometimes displaying a fake stone facade or arched entryway in an attempt to mimic class.
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