4 ms·

Is it cheap relative to incomes in that area ? Sure, lots of cheap houses in areas with low incomes. So?

by vasilipupkin 10y ago

dionidium 10y ago
The discount on housing is far bigger than the discount on salaries
majormajor 10y ago
How much higher do you think the incomes for most jobs are in big coastal areas? It tends to be "very little."
- vasilipupkin 10y ago
  Hie much do you think it costs to live in far parts of Brooklyn? Relatively little. Yet you are 1 hr away from the heart of NYC
  - treehau5 10y ago
    As my friends who recently moved down here (Charlotte) from Brooklyn who worked in NYC tell me: still way too much, especially to have to deal with that traffic every day. Rent in Brooklyn got them 12 acres 40 minutes away from Uptown Charlotte, and a house to boot.
    - randallsquared 10y ago
      I've lived in a bunch of US places, including rural Colorado and the Atlanta, Boston and DC metro areas, and I will say that Charlotte is a special case. People here complain about housing costs and traffic, and I just smile quietly.
tropo 10y ago
Yes. You're getting 1.5x the income (usually with longer hours) and paying 5x for the house. You're also paying more for other random stuff like groceries, eating out, gasoline, electricity, etc. You're also paying lots more for taxes. Some states have no income tax. Some states have no sales tax. Some have neither!
- vasilipupkin 10y ago
  Well, maybe 1.5 the salary, but I bet total comp at Google in SF is way more than 1.5x best Ohio employers. But there is also California weather and NY culture that account for part of the cost of living premium. Don't think that has any value ? Great for you, you can live in Decatur. Ilinois.
  - twelve40 10y ago
    ? Google employs ~30k people here. The rest 7.5 million should pack up and move to Decatur? I actually don't see what can be done about it. But it's a bit strange to project Google numbers to the entire generation.
    - vasilipupkin 10y ago
      Lots of those 7mln live in homes that they bought many years ago, before the boom. If they sold them and moved to Decatur, they would be very rich.
  - dionidium 10y ago
    Of course, but Google is an outlier in just about every sense. Most people in San Francisco don't earn the equivalent of Google's total comp. Also, what's this nonsense about Decatur, Illinois? St. Louis and Cincinnati and Nashville and Pittsburgh and so on all have a bunch of pre-WWII, walkable, interesting neighborhoods, with little restaurants and bars and people putting on poetry readings and bands playing in basement clubs and jazz quartets playing at wine and cheese parties and concert halls that host national acts and major sports franchises and yuppies and hipsters and Python Meetups and comedy clubs and big pretty parks and coffee shops and whatever else you can think of. No, they are emphatically not like San Francisco or NYC. But don't be silly. Millions of people live in those places. Did you really think they're all just skipping stones and waiting to die? I'm quite glad I grew up here, because I think I'd be just the type of asshole who'd make jokes about Decatur, Illinois had I not. And you know what? I'd have been wrong.
    - 10y ago

Is it cheap relative to incomes in that area ? Sure, lots of cheap houses in areas with low incomes. So?

dionidium 10y ago

The discount on housing is far bigger than the discount on salaries

majormajor 10y ago

How much higher do you think the incomes for most jobs are in big coastal areas? It tends to be "very little."

vasilipupkin 10y ago
Hie much do you think it costs to live in far parts of Brooklyn? Relatively little. Yet you are 1 hr away from the heart of NYC
- treehau5 10y ago
  As my friends who recently moved down here (Charlotte) from Brooklyn who worked in NYC tell me: still way too much, especially to have to deal with that traffic every day. Rent in Brooklyn got them 12 acres 40 minutes away from Uptown Charlotte, and a house to boot.
  - randallsquared 10y ago
    I've lived in a bunch of US places, including rural Colorado and the Atlanta, Boston and DC metro areas, and I will say that Charlotte is a special case. People here complain about housing costs and traffic, and I just smile quietly.

tropo 10y ago

Yes. You're getting 1.5x the income (usually with longer hours) and paying 5x for the house. You're also paying more for other random stuff like groceries, eating out, gasoline, electricity, etc. You're also paying lots more for taxes. Some states have no income tax. Some states have no sales tax. Some have neither!

vasilipupkin 10y ago
Well, maybe 1.5 the salary, but I bet total comp at Google in SF is way more than 1.5x best Ohio employers. But there is also California weather and NY culture that account for part of the cost of living premium. Don't think that has any value ? Great for you, you can live in Decatur. Ilinois.
- twelve40 10y ago
  ? Google employs ~30k people here. The rest 7.5 million should pack up and move to Decatur? I actually don't see what can be done about it. But it's a bit strange to project Google numbers to the entire generation.
  - vasilipupkin 10y ago
    Lots of those 7mln live in homes that they bought many years ago, before the boom. If they sold them and moved to Decatur, they would be very rich.
- dionidium 10y ago
  Of course, but Google is an outlier in just about every sense. Most people in San Francisco don't earn the equivalent of Google's total comp. Also, what's this nonsense about Decatur, Illinois? St. Louis and Cincinnati and Nashville and Pittsburgh and so on all have a bunch of pre-WWII, walkable, interesting neighborhoods, with little restaurants and bars and people putting on poetry readings and bands playing in basement clubs and jazz quartets playing at wine and cheese parties and concert halls that host national acts and major sports franchises and yuppies and hipsters and Python Meetups and comedy clubs and big pretty parks and coffee shops and whatever else you can think of. No, they are emphatically not like San Francisco or NYC. But don't be silly. Millions of people live in those places. Did you really think they're all just skipping stones and waiting to die? I'm quite glad I grew up here, because I think I'd be just the type of asshole who'd make jokes about Decatur, Illinois had I not. And you know what? I'd have been wrong.
  - 10y ago