Live data from Hacker News

Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

mercurynews.com

81–90 of 115 posts

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#81
post #78
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mortgages also don't go up once you're in, so they decrease as a percentage of living cost over time (assuming no change in income), while rents go up roughly with inflation.

Does the US not have standard variable rate mortgages? They are the norm in the UK, and they very much can go up (or down) over time, depending on the interest rate. Of course many people have assumed that interest rates will be low forever.

The US does have variable rate mortgages, but in the current environment of VERY low interest rates, they are typically only used by investors that plan on selling quickly.

Most people would be getting a fixed rate these days.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#82
Great...so our south bay becomes even more ridiculously congested. We need so much better mass transit to accommodate all this growth. Instead of spending billions on a bullet train to Los Angeles, can't we invest that money in better mass transit in the bay area?

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#83
post #34
post #8

Recently my rent in Sunnyvale for a nice two bedroom went up to $2900* a month from $2100 Looks like the trend will continue. *not including trash and utilities.

Just for comparison, that would cover PITI for a 15 year mortgage of around $330k. In cheaper parts of the country, like Dallas, that would net you a 4br 2000+ sq foot home on a 1/2 acre in an affluent suburb.

This is a common but not very useful comparison. My partner and I are 2 people. For what we pay for our Portland apartment we could easily pay for a large-ish house somewhere in a decent sized but smaller city.

Doesn't mean we want to live there or even have an interest in a bigger place. What would we do with 4 bedrooms?

These kinds of comparisons need to be prefaced with "If you want a big house or are interested in moving thousands of miles."

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#84
post #78
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mortgages also don't go up once you're in, so they decrease as a percentage of living cost over time (assuming no change in income), while rents go up roughly with inflation.

Does the US not have standard variable rate mortgages? They are the norm in the UK, and they very much can go up (or down) over time, depending on the interest rate. Of course many people have assumed that interest rates will be low forever.

It does, but it's generally discouraged and not common. Fixed rate mortgages are far more common and desired. We also have mortgage types that start at a fixed rate and then after some period of time become variable. Many of the variable rate mortgages also have caps on how much they can float per year.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#85

I don't get why Google and others are not going out of the valley to nearby cities like Sacramento? The difference in property acquisition is probably pocket change to the company, but I reckon the quality of life to the Googlers, Facebookers etc would be vastly different.

I agree.

I'm an Xoogler, and before I quit last summer, our group had been slated to move from the main Mountain View campus to the new "Tech Corners" campus in Sunnyvale[1].

Before Google, I'd worked remote for 15 years, and am working remote again now. About the only thing that made working in the open-office environment tolerable was the feeling of being in the main campus where things were happening. Collaborating with other groups was a 5-10 minute walk or bike ride, rather than a hangout. I went nearly every week to TGIF in Charlies, and I went to a lot of the author talks, and to one off events (like internal job fairs, the MK fair before they got rid of it, GoogleWeen, etc), and use the urgent care clinic. Not to mention that we had zillions of cafes and food trucks to choose from, multiple gyms, multiple TechStops, etc.

Once you're all the way in Sunnyvale, in-person meetings become much more difficult, and the amenities like I mentioned above drop away. At that point, you might as well be in some lower-cost area with cheaper housing and a better commute. Or working remotely :)

[1]The new building was a new-style REWS abomination with impressive public spaces to walk through on the way to totally open offices with no cube walls (as opposed to the 4' walls around the 12 person cubes in the building I was in). So there was a lot of resistance in my group..

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#86
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some engineers most certainly do. I'd say anyone who makes over 200K can afford to live here. Can a single person making 150K a year afford to live in Santa Clara County? I'd say for sure.

Your vastly overstating things. 2,700 per month was doable @85k. @150K you could afford 6K per month.

I'm just responding to the sentiment that even engineers have to resort to renting rooms from people. Depending on living expenses and the ability to save, lots of engineers can afford to live decently in SV. 90k isn't going to buy you a house in Palo Alto, but you can afford to live in SJ/SV/SC/etc with that.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#87
post #78
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mortgages also don't go up once you're in, so they decrease as a percentage of living cost over time (assuming no change in income), while rents go up roughly with inflation.

Does the US not have standard variable rate mortgages? They are the norm in the UK, and they very much can go up (or down) over time, depending on the interest rate. Of course many people have assumed that interest rates will be low forever.

Does the US not have standard variable rate mortgages?

They exist, but I have no idea how popular they are. Some older folks like myself remember the 80s, when variable rate mortgages were more popular due to higher interest rates at the time. I also remember a few people I knew who nearly lost their house because their variable rate mortgage went up considerably (all kept their houses, but they were pinching pennies until the coins screamed).

Thus I extrapolate that I'm not the only one that stays away from variable rate mortgages. That, and our current mortgage is at 2.5%.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the worlds best and brightest, in the worlds technology hot bed, blamed for gentrification, told we are over paid, told our skills are in such demand that special worker visa systems are in place to supplement the supply but not only can they not afford a home, they can't afford rent by themselves. Someone is making money in SV to live alone and buy homes but it isn't the engineers.

some engineers most certainly do. I'd say anyone who makes over 200K can afford to live here. Can a single person making 150K a year afford to live in Santa Clara County? I'd say for sure.

So basically only a very small outlier population (those who make over $200K) can actually afford to live in the area.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. But, there's still the time cost of commuting. If you pay a premium to live in SF, then you're not going to want to commute 90-120 minutes so South Bay. Then another 90 minutes back at night. In that situation, you'd be paying a premium to live in cramped quarters, in a city with thousands of things to do, but have zero time to do any of it during the week. I meet people on Caltrain coming from Gilroy commutin…

"You have to decide, do I want to drastically overpay for where I live to be close to SF?" Of course, if you make good tech money (say, anything over 200K) then its a moot issue-you can overpay for ridiculously priced 1-2 bedroom apartments, and still have money left over to save/indulge with.

That's only true for the small number of outliers who make that much. For the rest of us, there's Gilroy and Santa Cruz and Livermore.
Post reply on HN