5 ms·
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 utilitie
by codezero 11y ago
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.
- hkmurakami 11y agoYup pretty straightforward spillover from Palo Alto -> Mountain View -> Sunnyvale -> Santa Clara that we've been seeing over the last 20 years.
- jon-wood 11y agoSounds around London prices to me where things are just as ridiculous. My wife and I moved back to our hometown recently mostly to get away from that and now pay less than half that for a three bedroom house. Being able to do that makes me ludicrously thankful for us both being able to work remotely 90% of the time.
- perryh2 11y agoYou can easily rent a bedroom in an older house or multi-room apartment for around $1000-1200 in Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale though. A few of my coworkers do this.
- epicureanideal 11y agoNot to beat a dead horse, but that's hard to do with a family. So by the time you're late 20s to mid 30s and have a stable long term relationship and possibly kids, you're looking at those $2900/mo prices.
- e12e 11y agoSo, same price? (2400 for two bedrooms, add a premium for not being 2 roms in a 4-rom flat)?
- ZanyProgrammer 11y agoI recently moved from the Bay Area to get rid of this-as you get older, interviewing with people (often for fucking culture fit) for the privilege of sharing a bedroom gets really, really old (I just want to pay rent and mind my own business). There's something to be said about living as an adult and having your own place.
- ones_and_zeros 11y agoAh 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.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y agosome 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.
- Retric 11y agoYour vastly overstating things. 2,700 per month was doable @85k. @150K you could afford 6K per month.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y agoI'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.
- Redoubts 11y ago> @150K you could afford 6K per month. But why would I do that to myself?
- ryandrake 11y agoSo basically only a very small outlier population (those who make over $200K) can actually afford to live in the area.
- 11y ago
- codezero 11y agoMy wife and I and our cats won't fit our lives into a bedroom very well.
- winter_blue 11y agoRent near Manhattan in the NYC area is quite bad as well. In Manhattan, a tiny one-bedroom will cost you $3500.In the parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Jersey City that are fairly close (commuting time-wise) to Manhattan, the rents are horrible as well. One of my friends pays circa $2,600/mo for a one-bedroom in Carrol Gardens. An acquaintance in Long Island City had to move out of a two bedroom apartment in Long Island City, because the landlord increased the rent to $4000/month! Exchange Place (Jersey City), Brooklyn Heights, and Downtown Brooklyn are similarly super-expensive.
- tyingq 11y agoJust 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.
- bane 11y agoMortgages 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.
- tyingq 11y agoAgreed, although property taxes and insurance typically do go up. How much that matters varies greatly by location.
- mgkimsal 11y agoWe had property taxes go down (based on declining home value, of course). When renting, I never had my rent go down, even if the building values went down :) You're right, though, on tax/ins. They tend to be a much smaller portion of the outgoing. Currently combined, we're at ~$3000/year for tax/ins. Even if that went up by 20%, it's an extra $50/month (wouldn't be happy about that, but it wouldn't break the bank). Rent of $2100 going up 20% is a much huger issue.
- rwmj 11y agoDoes 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.
- tyingq 11y agoThe 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.
- rwmj 11y agoI don't understand why people do this. I'm paying $1000/month to own a 2 bedroom house with a huge garden. I built my own office at the end of the garden, which I can guarantee you is several times bigger and more comfortable than a work cube. I work remotely for a major US software company. (My commute is 1 minute if I'm carrying a cup of tea, slightly shorter if not). Edit: picture of the office: http://oirase.annexia.org/office.jpg http://oirase.annexia.org/office.jpg
- elbigbad 11y agoNot everyone has the option to just telework. Many companies do not have this option and most jobs require face time of some sort. That's like saying you got a job at Google and asking why everyone doesn't simply get jobs at Google.
- rwmj 11y agoI would argue that most people in IT (which is what we're talking about here) have the option to telework. It may be that because of technical or institutional barriers they are not able to do this, but those usually have very little to do with the nature of the work.
- euyyn 11y agoThe point is it's not up to you, the company has to let you. Good on you, but the rest of us do not have the option.
- CalRobert 11y agoIt depends on priorities. Some people prefer city life. I value access to transit and amenities more than a large living space or a garden, and I _detest_ having to drive everywhere, so I pay more to live in a city. Different strokes for different folks, though! Your office looks nice.
- st3v3r 11y agoYeah, but where are you? I'm guessing out in the middle of nowhere. While that appeals to you, it very much does not appeal to me. I like being where people are, where there is stuff to do, different types of food to eat, and culture around.
- tn13 11y agoI am totally fed up of rents in Sunnyvale. Thinking of moving to Texas now only if I get a good job.