4 ms·

Houston seems to have the best cost of housing to income ratio for technology people.

by aswanson 8y ago

cgb223 8y ago
Is there a chart somewhere that has this kind of information? Especially if it pertains to tech jobs specifically
- ccmonnett 8y ago
  Not your OP and not answering your question directly, but the aforementioned "tech-to-housing cost" ratio isn't so straightforward for finding out where to work. For the record, your parent seems to have thrown out Houston anecdotally. AFAIK it doesn't have a tech scene much different than would be expected from a metro area of ~6M people but it's super cheap to live in as cities go. The 'cheap' big cities (sticking to the US, those in the middle of the country: Chicago et Houston in particular) have just enough tech to show up on the hypothetical chart and are cheap enough to place well. But IMO, even as a U of Illinois alum and massive fan of Chicago, the tech density isn't such that you would be able to find particularly interesting work, especially compared to the Bay. That said, surely there enough startups that need app/web developers to pay your rent in those relatively inexpensive areas if that's your thing. The cities that interest me are those with a high density of tech at a lower cost: Austin, Portland, Raleigh, etc. The Bay housing cost is trickling down there too; there are so many people making _so much_ in the Bay that still can't afford to stay that when they start moving to these places they can really affect the smaller markets. Austin has had a crazy housing boom in the last ~15 years, but it would take a _lot_ more people moving to Chicago to move the needle there. You still face issues with inequality squashing culture, like in Austin, which has a strong history of art and music and is so much cheaper than the Bay but so much more expensive than the areas around it. Bigger cities can generally support the diversity of people needed to maintain a viable culture if they aren't 7x7 miles and surrounded by water on three sides like San Francisco is. In other words, you could move out of the Bay to one of these places and live happily for a few years before you find these same problems following you to your new home. This is a bit of an exploration but I think about leaving the Bay daily as my wife and I get more serious about starting a family. We talk about this often, and to each family, it's the most important thing in their lives. SV is really in for a wake-up call as it sheds talent that can't afford to stay.
  - jimbofisher1 8y ago
    FWIW as someone working in tech in Texas I would say that Austin is probably only 30% more expensive than other cities in Texas overall and has real estate maybe 20% more expensive. Meanwhile it is far and away the major Tech hotspot here with Dallas a distant 2nd.
pascalxus 8y ago
That's because they don't try to stop builders from building more housing, at every turn. Plus, they don't have as much of those awful regulations and zoning as CA
- rm_-rf_slash 8y ago
  Absolutely correct. However that can lead to scores of unique problems on their own, from overdevelopment exacerbating the effects of natural disasters (like the flood zone houses being destroyed last year), to utterly hellish development decisions. I once Googled “Houston zoning fail” with my fiancée when she didn’t believe me that Houston had no zoning laws. We saw an arial photo of a huge skyscraper right next to a low density residential neighborhood and maybe 30 parking spots at best, and we laughed for 10 minutes straight.
  - conanbatt 8y ago
    Did you laugh in a 3000U$S 1br with no seismic protection, mandatory solar panels, and crack needles and homeless in your doorstep?
    - rm_-rf_slash 8y ago
      Idk why you’re bringing up that California stuff. I was only talking about Houston.
  - anonymous5133 8y ago
    Those stories are the exception not the norm.

Houston seems to have the best cost of housing to income ratio for technology people.

cgb223 8y ago

Is there a chart somewhere that has this kind of information? Especially if it pertains to tech jobs specifically

ccmonnett 8y ago
Not your OP and not answering your question directly, but the aforementioned "tech-to-housing cost" ratio isn't so straightforward for finding out where to work. For the record, your parent seems to have thrown out Houston anecdotally. AFAIK it doesn't have a tech scene much different than would be expected from a metro area of ~6M people but it's super cheap to live in as cities go. The 'cheap' big cities (sticking to the US, those in the middle of the country: Chicago et Houston in particular) have just enough tech to show up on the hypothetical chart and are cheap enough to place well. But IMO, even as a U of Illinois alum and massive fan of Chicago, the tech density isn't such that you would be able to find particularly interesting work, especially compared to the Bay. That said, surely there enough startups that need app/web developers to pay your rent in those relatively inexpensive areas if that's your thing. The cities that interest me are those with a high density of tech at a lower cost: Austin, Portland, Raleigh, etc. The Bay housing cost is trickling down there too; there are so many people making _so much_ in the Bay that still can't afford to stay that when they start moving to these places they can really affect the smaller markets. Austin has had a crazy housing boom in the last ~15 years, but it would take a _lot_ more people moving to Chicago to move the needle there. You still face issues with inequality squashing culture, like in Austin, which has a strong history of art and music and is so much cheaper than the Bay but so much more expensive than the areas around it. Bigger cities can generally support the diversity of people needed to maintain a viable culture if they aren't 7x7 miles and surrounded by water on three sides like San Francisco is. In other words, you could move out of the Bay to one of these places and live happily for a few years before you find these same problems following you to your new home. This is a bit of an exploration but I think about leaving the Bay daily as my wife and I get more serious about starting a family. We talk about this often, and to each family, it's the most important thing in their lives. SV is really in for a wake-up call as it sheds talent that can't afford to stay.
- jimbofisher1 8y ago
  FWIW as someone working in tech in Texas I would say that Austin is probably only 30% more expensive than other cities in Texas overall and has real estate maybe 20% more expensive. Meanwhile it is far and away the major Tech hotspot here with Dallas a distant 2nd.

pascalxus 8y ago

That's because they don't try to stop builders from building more housing, at every turn. Plus, they don't have as much of those awful regulations and zoning as CA

rm_-rf_slash 8y ago
Absolutely correct. However that can lead to scores of unique problems on their own, from overdevelopment exacerbating the effects of natural disasters (like the flood zone houses being destroyed last year), to utterly hellish development decisions. I once Googled “Houston zoning fail” with my fiancée when she didn’t believe me that Houston had no zoning laws. We saw an arial photo of a huge skyscraper right next to a low density residential neighborhood and maybe 30 parking spots at best, and we laughed for 10 minutes straight.
- conanbatt 8y ago
  Did you laugh in a 3000U$S 1br with no seismic protection, mandatory solar panels, and crack needles and homeless in your doorstep?
  - rm_-rf_slash 8y ago
    Idk why you’re bringing up that California stuff. I was only talking about Houston.
- anonymous5133 8y ago
  Those stories are the exception not the norm.