8 ms·

As someone who's currently looking to purchase a first home in Boise after living here for the last 9 years, all I can say is "meep". There's nothing like the c

by _virtu 8y ago

As someone who's currently looking to purchase a first home in Boise after living here for the last 9 years, all I can say is "meep". There's nothing like the crazy stupid money that Californians are brining in to the housing market to make we wish articles like this would stop shining the spotlight on Boise. The housing market has been nuts this season and I can't help but think that it's all the Californians coming in and buying houses off of the market in cash. I don't mind more people coming in to our city. I don't care where you're from. Boise is a lovely place and I would love to have more culture and different perspectives help contribute to the current lifestyle of Boiseans. I just wish it wasn't to the detriment of the current lifestyle of the people who already live here.

StudentStuff 8y ago
Financially speaking, what good paying jobs are in Boise? I have cousins out there who both graduated with solid degrees, yet can't find work outside retail, and have learned the hard way that becoming management in retail has massive downsides (esp. on one's family).
- _virtu 8y ago
  Mainly tech. I work in tech and have had no issue looking for work. > 7,000 science, technology, engineering and math jobs went unfilled in Idaho in 2017, double the number from the year before. Sources: [1]: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article195422434.html http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state...
  - StudentStuff 8y ago
    What companies are creating these positions? What is considered a "high" wage? In my eyes, that could be $58k a year or maybe a touch less depending on the authors perspective, which is a far cry from what similar talent would make in Portland or Seattle, let alone SoCal.
    - throwawayjava 8y ago
      IDK about Boise, but the few mid-sized cities I'm familiar with are bemoaning a tech talent crisis and citing huge numbers of unfilled positions. But when I shop around for jobs in those areas, two things stick out: 1. While they'll generally do better than 58k for non-entry-level positions, midwestern employers won't touch 1/3rd of my coastal salary. Housing doesn't even come close to compensating. Even if someone straight up gifted me a house in the midwest, I'd still net close to 6 figures better on the coast. 2. More importantly, and 100% related to #1, midwestern employers have no idea how to leverage my skills. Therefore, the work is generally less interesting (lots of not-so-challenging implementation roles and a lot of that is web stuff; very little industrial R&D) with no room for growth (except perhaps into vaguely technical mid-level management at a particular type of company, which I'm not interested in). 3 (This one is admittedly purely about personal taste). The local support for public schooling k-12+ is spotty. Some of the best schools in the country, but also some of the worst. And you basically have to live in sprawlville to use the good schools. Meanwhile, the interesting jobs are still mostly where you'd expect and the bike/transit infrastructure connecting wealthy suburbs to downtown areas with interesting jobs just doesn't exist... so, better buy a comfortable car. IMO this won't change for at least one more decade. The tech talent for one type of computer science will begin to fill in just as demand shifts to a different type of computer science. I'd be unsurprised if that continues indefinitely. The only way out is for these communities to build out their own talent pipelines a la Pittsburgh or Chicago. But Chicago is Chicago, and Pittsburgh can pull on its rich institutions from a glorious past. So, IDK how you bootstrap that sort of thing.
      - herdrick 8y ago
        > 3 Surely you can't be saying that public schools are a reason to stay in the Bay Area?
    - Naritai 8y ago
      In my experience 60-70k is considered to be a 'high' salary in Boise. Like, someone outside of tech who is making is 60k considers themselves to be upper middle class. I know people who relocated from Boise to Bay area, and were given 30-40% salary boosts for cost of living. Of course, at the time real estate was so cheap in Boise, it was commonly noted that it actually costs much more than 30-40% more to live in the Bay area than it does in Boise, but that's what was offered.
- connorl33t 8y ago
  There's a surprisingly large tech scene in Boise, quiet, but there.
  - StudentStuff 8y ago
    What companies are there, and with what kind of pay range/job roles?
    - Splendor 8y ago
      Micron, Clearwater, T-Sheets, Kount, WhiteCloud, Vacasa, VisitPay, Metageek, Blackbox VR, etc.
    - jarsin 8y ago
      Micron - One of the worst places you could ever work. The amount of people coming out of there with PTSD was very high when I was in boise. Clearwater - Old and boring T-Sheets - sold to behemoth that will mess it all up Blackbox VR - some guy who got lucky with a body building forum blowing money Kount - ya scammy payment processing for the win HP - reorg and layoffs never ending. Tons of pretentious digital marketing firms who really only work for hp. I can go on and on. The tech scene there is a joke don't listen to anyone who says otherwise.
      - StudentStuff 8y ago
        Wow, yeah, that tech scene sounds very similar to what is north of the Columbia River in the Portland area, basically HP (failing forward at an astounding pace) and a bunch of sketchy "tech" companies that aren't great places to work. Its livable, but not where I'd go out of my way to get a job at.
      - connorl33t 8y ago
        Why the sentiment? I'm having issues thinking of a company in SV (or anywhere else) that can't be degraded down like that :)
      - _virtu 8y ago
hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
Your response sounds like an exact echo of Austin's gripes from 5-10 years ago, and thus I think highlight the point of the article. Sorry, but it's a losing battle. While some of us still like to say we are trying to "Keep Austin Weird", the fact is it's not really possible to keep it that weird when bare lot values for anything remotely central in Austin now go for over $500k.
- scruple 8y ago
  Or Portland in the 80s and 90s.
- gonzo 8y ago
  > Austin's gripes from 5-10 years ago Started in the mid-90s here, but yeah.
twblalock 8y ago
You can't have a large influx of people from anywhere without the culture changing. You're going to get higher home prices and/or more sprawl, and more traffic either way. But you're also going to get more investment in the area, more skilled workers, and more consumers spending money. To give an example from California: San Francisco started as a Spanish mission town. Then it was a gold rush town, and then a major port and military base with a predominantly working-class population. Then it became a center of counterculture and gay culture, and then a tech hub with a very high cost of living. Every time the city changed, there were people who didn't want it to change -- but the people who resisted change were themselves responsible for changing the city when they arrived. Similar things could be said about cities everywhere. This is the lifecycle of cities. It's what happens in a free country where people can live and work where they want to. Unless you were one of the people who showed up on a wagon train and built Boise out of nothing, you aren't any different than today's newcomers.
gonzo 8y ago
> There's nothing like the crazy stupid money that Californians are brining in to the housing market In Austin we used to call them "equity refugees". Good luck.
barsonme 8y ago
> There's nothing like the crazy stupid money that Californians are brining in to the housing market Hi, welcome to the Our House Prices (And Other Things) Got Jacked Up By Californians club! Sincerely, Washington, Oregon, Texas, ...
privong 8y ago
> As someone who's currently looking to purchase a first home in Boise after living here for the last 9 years, all I can say is "meep". There's nothing like the crazy stupid money that Californians are brining in to the housing market to make we wish articles like this would stop shining the spotlight on Boise. The housing market has been nuts this season and I can't help but think that it's all the Californians coming in and buying houses off of the market in cash. This has been happening in Boise for a long time. "Keep California out of Idaho" has been a meme since at least the late 90s, and probably earlier.

by _virtu 8y ago

StudentStuff 8y ago

Financially speaking, what good paying jobs are in Boise? I have cousins out there who both graduated with solid degrees, yet can't find work outside retail, and have learned the hard way that becoming management in retail has massive downsides (esp. on one's family).

_virtu 8y ago
Mainly tech. I work in tech and have had no issue looking for work. > 7,000 science, technology, engineering and math jobs went unfilled in Idaho in 2017, double the number from the year before. Sources: [1]: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article195422434.html http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state...
- StudentStuff 8y ago
  What companies are creating these positions? What is considered a "high" wage? In my eyes, that could be $58k a year or maybe a touch less depending on the authors perspective, which is a far cry from what similar talent would make in Portland or Seattle, let alone SoCal.
  - throwawayjava 8y ago
    IDK about Boise, but the few mid-sized cities I'm familiar with are bemoaning a tech talent crisis and citing huge numbers of unfilled positions. But when I shop around for jobs in those areas, two things stick out: 1. While they'll generally do better than 58k for non-entry-level positions, midwestern employers won't touch 1/3rd of my coastal salary. Housing doesn't even come close to compensating. Even if someone straight up gifted me a house in the midwest, I'd still net close to 6 figures better on the coast. 2. More importantly, and 100% related to #1, midwestern employers have no idea how to leverage my skills. Therefore, the work is generally less interesting (lots of not-so-challenging implementation roles and a lot of that is web stuff; very little industrial R&D) with no room for growth (except perhaps into vaguely technical mid-level management at a particular type of company, which I'm not interested in). 3 (This one is admittedly purely about personal taste). The local support for public schooling k-12+ is spotty. Some of the best schools in the country, but also some of the worst. And you basically have to live in sprawlville to use the good schools. Meanwhile, the interesting jobs are still mostly where you'd expect and the bike/transit infrastructure connecting wealthy suburbs to downtown areas with interesting jobs just doesn't exist... so, better buy a comfortable car. IMO this won't change for at least one more decade. The tech talent for one type of computer science will begin to fill in just as demand shifts to a different type of computer science. I'd be unsurprised if that continues indefinitely. The only way out is for these communities to build out their own talent pipelines a la Pittsburgh or Chicago. But Chicago is Chicago, and Pittsburgh can pull on its rich institutions from a glorious past. So, IDK how you bootstrap that sort of thing.
    - herdrick 8y ago
      > 3 Surely you can't be saying that public schools are a reason to stay in the Bay Area?
  - Naritai 8y ago
    In my experience 60-70k is considered to be a 'high' salary in Boise. Like, someone outside of tech who is making is 60k considers themselves to be upper middle class. I know people who relocated from Boise to Bay area, and were given 30-40% salary boosts for cost of living. Of course, at the time real estate was so cheap in Boise, it was commonly noted that it actually costs much more than 30-40% more to live in the Bay area than it does in Boise, but that's what was offered.
connorl33t 8y ago
There's a surprisingly large tech scene in Boise, quiet, but there.
- StudentStuff 8y ago
  What companies are there, and with what kind of pay range/job roles?
  - Splendor 8y ago
    Micron, Clearwater, T-Sheets, Kount, WhiteCloud, Vacasa, VisitPay, Metageek, Blackbox VR, etc.
  - jarsin 8y ago
    Micron - One of the worst places you could ever work. The amount of people coming out of there with PTSD was very high when I was in boise. Clearwater - Old and boring T-Sheets - sold to behemoth that will mess it all up Blackbox VR - some guy who got lucky with a body building forum blowing money Kount - ya scammy payment processing for the win HP - reorg and layoffs never ending. Tons of pretentious digital marketing firms who really only work for hp. I can go on and on. The tech scene there is a joke don't listen to anyone who says otherwise.
    - StudentStuff 8y ago
      Wow, yeah, that tech scene sounds very similar to what is north of the Columbia River in the Portland area, basically HP (failing forward at an astounding pace) and a bunch of sketchy "tech" companies that aren't great places to work. Its livable, but not where I'd go out of my way to get a job at.
    - connorl33t 8y ago
      Why the sentiment? I'm having issues thinking of a company in SV (or anywhere else) that can't be degraded down like that :)
    - _virtu 8y ago

hn_throwaway_99 8y ago

Your response sounds like an exact echo of Austin's gripes from 5-10 years ago, and thus I think highlight the point of the article. Sorry, but it's a losing battle. While some of us still like to say we are trying to "Keep Austin Weird", the fact is it's not really possible to keep it that weird when bare lot values for anything remotely central in Austin now go for over $500k.

scruple 8y ago
Or Portland in the 80s and 90s.
gonzo 8y ago
> Austin's gripes from 5-10 years ago Started in the mid-90s here, but yeah.

twblalock 8y ago

You can't have a large influx of people from anywhere without the culture changing. You're going to get higher home prices and/or more sprawl, and more traffic either way. But you're also going to get more investment in the area, more skilled workers, and more consumers spending money. To give an example from California: San Francisco started as a Spanish mission town. Then it was a gold rush town, and then a major port and military base with a predominantly working-class population. Then it became a center of counterculture and gay culture, and then a tech hub with a very high cost of living. Every time the city changed, there were people who didn't want it to change -- but the people who resisted change were themselves responsible for changing the city when they arrived. Similar things could be said about cities everywhere. This is the lifecycle of cities. It's what happens in a free country where people can live and work where they want to. Unless you were one of the people who showed up on a wagon train and built Boise out of nothing, you aren't any different than today's newcomers.

gonzo 8y ago

> There's nothing like the crazy stupid money that Californians are brining in to the housing market In Austin we used to call them "equity refugees". Good luck.

barsonme 8y ago

> There's nothing like the crazy stupid money that Californians are brining in to the housing market Hi, welcome to the Our House Prices (And Other Things) Got Jacked Up By Californians club! Sincerely, Washington, Oregon, Texas, ...

privong 8y ago

> As someone who's currently looking to purchase a first home in Boise after living here for the last 9 years, all I can say is "meep". There's nothing like the crazy stupid money that Californians are brining in to the housing market to make we wish articles like this would stop shining the spotlight on Boise. The housing market has been nuts this season and I can't help but think that it's all the Californians coming in and buying houses off of the market in cash. This has been happening in Boise for a long time. "Keep California out of Idaho" has been a meme since at least the late 90s, and probably earlier.