Sorry, $200k isn't enough. You won't get the house. I know because I've applied. No landlord is renting out homes to single income in the peninsula at $200k/yr. $400k at FAANG - yes (they're all afraid of people losing their jobs at startups and lots of FAANG out there to rent them homes up). But, again, we're talking about "very comfortable" - not comfortable. Not okay. Not "I managed". Very comfortable - something people actually want, not just live with.
And I don't put renting in the "very comfortable" category. Nor do I put "reliable" cars or domestic vacations. Safe neighborhood? It's expensive - $2m expensive.
Do you have any real insight to the CURRENT housing market in the SF Bay Area? Housing is the big cost. It's more expensive to have a garage for a Porsche than the Porsche itself. I can literally go out tomorrow and buy a 911 but CANNOT afford to put it in a garage. That's how fucking ridiculous it is.
> Sorry, $200k isn't enough. You won't get the house. I know because I've applied. No landlord is renting out homes to single income in the peninsula at $200k/yr.
Yes they are. I know people who've gotten them. You can find a 3br/2bath single family home with a garage, for less than 5K/mo in SF, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and tons in Sunnyvale and Mountain View.
> I can literally go out tomorrow and buy a 911 but CANNOT afford to put it in a garage.
The 911 costs more than a year's rent on said 3/2 SFH with a garage. For many, it's more than 2 years rent. Yes, if you want to own a $100k car, you'll have to sacrifice in other parts of your life.
In Palo Alto? Bullshit. Unless it's a 1000sqft POS, there is no way you're finding a home in PA for $5000/month that is 3bed/2bath with a garage. Prove it.
You're all ignoring the general sentiment anyway. Not like it matters. Cherrypick all you want. Beating a dead horse. People are so dumb here about COL - acting as if $200k is truly enough to "very comfortably" live here. Ask any engineer in SV if they want to just stay at $200k/yr household income (and they don't own a home and they don't have wealth) for the rest of their life and they'll say no.
> Ask any engineer in SV if they want to just stay at $200k/yr household income (and they don't own a home and they don't have wealth) for the rest of their life and they'll say no.
Yes, because people want to be more than simply comfortable.
I'm just curious, why do people choose to put themselves in that environment? I'm mean, based o the cost of living one could move to practically anywhere else (excluding about five areas) in the US and have this "very comfortable" lifestyle on $100k-150k.
Because you aren’t surrounded by peers. Some of us have lived in other areas and don’t want to go back for good reasons. People in other areas have jobs. People in SV have careers. Many more reasons to list. Average education among my peers is obscenely high (a bachelors is seen as being undereducated - masters is average with PhD being very common).
The area isn’t that bad except for COL. Once you’re rich, it isn’t that bad. So, just get rich. That’s the basics of it. It sucks but at least there is a solution for those that are ambitious enough. Can’t fix bad weather or jobs.
There are some companies on the east coast that want mostly PhDs. I have a Masters, but that's really nothing. I feel like degrees don't really mean much. They just show you put in your time (and money) and have at least half a brain. I've also seen highly educated people who aren't very good at independent thought.
"People in other areas have jobs. People in SV have careers."
This seems a little over generalized and even pompous. There are plenty of people who have careers in other areas. Just as a single example, how about the financial developers in NYC, like at Jane Street? There are plenty of people who leave SV too.
People here keep nitpicking about the generality of statements I'm making. They're not getting the general vibe and the general vibe is the point. Just because you can cherrypick some data that says there are people with careers or people with PhDs in some other area does not mean that it is like SV. Surely you understand that?
Who the fuck would move here when homes are $2-3m? People who are dedicated. That's the difference. People talk about leaving the bay area to slow down or give up careers. They don't talk about leaving the bay area to start the next big thing. (Regardless of all the BS you see about X cheap-ass company moving to Y city)
I think it's more about people who want some sort of status or virtue signaling. There are plenty of successful start ups in other cities like Seattle, NYC, NOVA, Austin, etc.
I think the reason people are "nitpicking" is because the majority of people don't live in SV. So if anything, talking about dev salary and saying $400k is barely enough, one would have to cherry pick data from SV to justify that statement.
And I don't put renting in the "very comfortable" category. Nor do I put "reliable" cars or domestic vacations. Safe neighborhood? It's expensive - $2m expensive.
Do you have any real insight to the CURRENT housing market in the SF Bay Area? Housing is the big cost. It's more expensive to have a garage for a Porsche than the Porsche itself. I can literally go out tomorrow and buy a 911 but CANNOT afford to put it in a garage. That's how fucking ridiculous it is.