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Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

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Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#51

Post by Nicholas_C »

washedup wrote: post #30
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #4

That's ok. When Airbnb, Square, and Stripe IPO in 12-36 months, all of the people currently flooding into SF to work for them will surely be able to sell their pre-IPO shares to ... Well, I don't know, honestly. I doubt that employee #1000 at Square would even be able to pay the down payment on a SF condo with their earnings. Also, just FYI: Seattle isn't that much cheaper than SF, the people are way meaner, traffic…

Median rent for a 1-bedroom in Seattle is $1,615, compared to $2,800 in SF (from Rent Jungle)

Wow, Seattle actually doesn't seem that much more expensive compared to the $1,263 average 1br in Dallas. But SF... Holy shit. And I'm actually seeing $2,965 on Rent Jungle for SF right now.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#52

Post by dijit »

jkot wrote: post #11

In London it is more like 80%

I was going to say something to this effect.

This figure does not surprise me in the slightest.

In London I was _easily_ paying 50% of my salary after tax in rent, because I didn't want to share an apartment with someone else.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#53

Post by PinguTS »

I don't know about the US. In Germany there is the general rule that you not pay more than 30% of your income for rent, if you want to have decent living. May be in the US it is different because there are diffrent costs for food.

50% and more just for living seems to be to high for me.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#54

Post by nilkn »

steven2012 wrote: post #36

Most people don't live by themselves in a 1 bedroom. They usually live 2+ people per room, so that they can afford it. For example, a 2 br apt might have 5 people living there, two couples and then one living in the living room. That's how they can afford the $5000/month rent.

That sounds like hell once one starts growing older -- and not a first world country.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#55

Post by rco8786 »

WalterSear wrote: post #33
nullrouted wrote: post #2

Which is silly....honestly companies need to start opening offices in more affordable areas. Colorado (Blouder, Denver, The Springs), Texas (Austin, San Antonio), Missouri (Kansas City, Saint Louis)....there are so many places you can put your employees that saves them money as well as your company a lot of money not only in Salaries because you'll be able to employees less but your rent/power/etc.

This is one of those things that is a great idea until it isn't. When your employer goes belly up, in SF, you have to fight off job offers. That's not going to be the case elsewhere. It's also much harder on the employers: if you think finding one good job is hard, try hiring an entire team of decent employees at once. Ultimately, it's worth the extra cost of staying where the tech is, prefixing your city name ala 'S…

Anybody in tech in SF is constantly fighting off job offers, not just when their employers go belly up.

At some point, costs will reach a tipping point where people will start to look elsewhere(I don't mean 1% of people and I don't mean the Easy Bay, but actual significant people moving away from the Bay Area).

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#56

Post by jkestner »

WalterSear wrote: post #33
nullrouted wrote: post #2

Which is silly....honestly companies need to start opening offices in more affordable areas. Colorado (Blouder, Denver, The Springs), Texas (Austin, San Antonio), Missouri (Kansas City, Saint Louis)....there are so many places you can put your employees that saves them money as well as your company a lot of money not only in Salaries because you'll be able to employees less but your rent/power/etc.

This is one of those things that is a great idea until it isn't. When your employer goes belly up, in SF, you have to fight off job offers. That's not going to be the case elsewhere. It's also much harder on the employers: if you think finding one good job is hard, try hiring an entire team of decent employees at once. Ultimately, it's worth the extra cost of staying where the tech is, prefixing your city name ala 'S…

It's not like those other cities are tech wastelands. You'll be able to find a good job. Maybe it won't pay as much as a city where you're being fought over, but then, it doesn't need to.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#57

Post by minimaxir »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #38

I love these high salaries. My thought is to find a job in SF, live there temporarily for 3-6 months, then become remote and move back to my real home on the east coast. Is that feasible? Aren't these kinds of companies pretty comfortable these days with video conferencing, IM, screen sharing etc.?

One does not simply "become remote."

There are strong advantages to working in direct contact, despite what sentiment on HN and logic dictates. Working in SF for a few months wouldn't make you super rich anyways.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#58

Post by rco8786 »

PinguTS wrote: post #53

I don't know about the US. In Germany there is the general rule that you not pay more than 30% of your income for rent, if you want to have decent living. May be in the US it is different because there are diffrent costs for food. 50% and more just for living seems to be to high for me.

Most of the U.S. 25-30% would be considered normal.

That's why the 50% figure in SF is newsworthy.

Re: Employees at Airbnb, Square and Stripe Are Spending 50%+ of Income on SF Rent

#60

Post by nilkn »

minimaxir wrote: post #57
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #38

I love these high salaries. My thought is to find a job in SF, live there temporarily for 3-6 months, then become remote and move back to my real home on the east coast. Is that feasible? Aren't these kinds of companies pretty comfortable these days with video conferencing, IM, screen sharing etc.?

One does not simply "become remote." There are strong advantages to working in direct contact, despite what sentiment on HN and logic dictates. Working in SF for a few months wouldn't make you super rich anyways.

I think his/her strategy of working in SF for a few months at first is not to become "super rich", but to establish a high salary that could then be "exported" to a cheaper area while staying on with the same company.
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