San Francisco Tech Firms See Workers Flee from $4,500 Rents • Hacker News Board

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

#421

Post by kec » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:11 AM UTC

whitenoice wrote: post #418

kec wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, salaries aren't comparable. My first job out in the bay area paid almost twice what I was offered by companies in the Metro Boston area.

Tech companies in downtown, cambridge pay pretty well. If your talking about metro west then I'm not sure. Twice would be too much, I highly doubt bay area pays 200k base on average.

Well, all I can really say is that among my friends who I've spoken with about this, those of us out in the bay area are making (including stock and bonuses) about 40% more than those who work in tech in metro Boston. It's more than enough to compensate for the higher cost of living.

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

#422

Post by steveax » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:12 AM UTC

erehweb wrote: post #161

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in California it isn't. Prop 13 limits property tax rates for owners.

Agreed. Was thinking of the Portland context.

Oregon passed Measure 5 in 1990, which is similar to California's prop 13.

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

#423

Post by cylinder » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:13 AM UTC

nunez wrote: post #228

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…

> I live in SF, but I wouldn't make the choice to move here today. It simply isn't worth Manhattan prices to live in a city full of tech bros where you can't get a good meal after 9:30. This one took me by surprise when I visited SF for the first time five years ago. I thought it would be booming with activity just like NYC, so I thought nothing of trying to find food when I arrived at ~11pm. NOTHING. Nothing was ope…

NYC is not that different. The only things open 24hrs are bodegas and diners, which serve shitty food. Even the Whole Foods in Union Square, the busiest in the nation, closes at 11pm, which is later than the grocery stores in suburban TX. I guess bars can stay open late.

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

#424

Post by cylinder » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:14 AM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #380

chrischen wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree with you. The whole point of software and the internet is to destroy boundaries and borders, especially physical ones. Companies neither have to have physical offices nor do they have to be located in the Bay Area. And unfortunately culture dictates that an office is always necessary and that you need to locate your tech company in the Bay Area for dubious reasons like fundraising (which should only…

Ha, yeah this makes me laugh. Startups that run completely on virtual machines in the cloud and their mission is to disrupt industry X but all of this can only be done from an open plan office space in SOMA.

Oh the irony of Slack opening up a bunch of offices around the world.

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

#425

Post by trhway » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:16 AM UTC

trhway wrote: post #175

TranquilMarmot wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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 the cost of living there. man, it is freedom. Freedom of employment in this case. At any moment i…

>not afraid ... pissing off my manager.

to make clear closely related point - being free from fear makes for better employees than otherwise as such employees have an option of calling waste/stupidity/etc when they see it.

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

#426

Post by stuxnet79 » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:24 AM UTC

dv0rak wrote: post #182

stuxnet79 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh cool, another Toronto developer!! I never see a lot in HN. Are you working for a startup? Also, why Hamilton or London? Have you tried looking for jobs in the Kitchener / Waterloo area? There are a lot of nice startups there as well as established companies. My friend recently got a job there at a bank.

Working for a design firm handling all their development. Hamilton and London also have the same kind of start up communities that the KW has without the pretension of going to UW (I'm a college drop out). Also more expensive in KW than Hamilton. Plus n other reasons why I don't like Toronto and prefer smaller cities, etc.

Well Hamilton is pretty nice (from the little I've seen). I know there's stereotypes and what not for Hamilton as a whole but I've been there and it's great so if you are looking for cheaper rent I don't think you could go wrong. I've never been to London funny enough but I don't doubt it's a great place to live, a lot of hot girls apparently :-)

Anyways good luck on your search. I'm sure you will be able to find something since you are currently employed. Just gotta keep on plugging away.

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

#427

Post by seansmccullough » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:27 AM UTC

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.

I save it, I don't want to work in an office for the rest of my life! Great opportunity to max out your 401(k) and Roth IRA.

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

#428

Post by seattle_spring » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:31 AM UTC

1_2__3 wrote: post #22

Apocryphon wrote: post #9

"They’ve increased 38 percent in Seattle, 12 percent in Austin and 6 percent in Phoenix." The article names the usual suspects for engineer emigrants (Austin, Portland, strangely no mention of NYC or Raleigh RTP), but why are people moving to Phoenix? Isn't living in the less sexy areas of South Bay (Sunnyvale, Milpitas, South San Jose) pretty much on par with urban life in Phoenix?

Do you somehow think those places are significantly cheaper than San Francisco? They're not.

Actually, they absolutely are. Cost of living in San Francisco is not even a comparison to any of those places. I live in Seattle in a kick-ass house in a great, walkable neighborhood for the same price that I paid for 650 sq ft apartment in Noe Valley 3 years ago.

Also funny: every time someone argues with this point, they'll put up a link to the most expensive condo in the hippest part of downtown Austin and say, "Look! Look, this apartment is $4000. Austin is expensive too!"

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

#429

Post by b3b0p » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:34 AM UTC

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…

Where did you move to in Austin with 1,100 square foot for $1,150 / month?

I am in downtown Austin. My rent is just shy of double that and I only have a 500 or so square foot apartment. I have a hard time believing you moved to something comparable to SOMA.

I'm going to guess you live either more North or South of downtown and have to commute if you work or want to get downtown. Which I think many would agree is not even close to comparable of living in SOMA. Also, if memory serves BART is far superior and actually a legitimate means of transportation. Our transportation situation here in Austin is a bit of a joke unless you live directly downtown.

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

#430

Post by ZanyProgrammer » Wed, Apr 06, 2016, 3:35 AM UTC

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…

BART really doesn't run late enough (Caltrain to the South Bay as well) to support suburbanites coming into SF to drink at night.