4 ms·

You don't mention your income, but presuming you're in tech, you may well find that the bay area offers not quite the discretionary percentage, but far more in

You don't mention your income, but presuming you're in tech, you may well find that the bay area offers not quite the discretionary percentage, but far more in left over after rent etc. in total. There is a reason people move here.

sithadmin 8y ago
I live here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_University_Place,_Texas#Demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_University_Place,_Texas#D...) and fit into the described demographics. SF in no way made sense at 2x my current income.
- alex_young 8y ago
  I must be missing something. The link you provided says ”The median income for a household in the city was $202,132, and the median income for a family was $227,425" That's more than double the median income in SF.
  - meowface 8y ago
    More than double the median income and also (presumably) less than half the cost of living. So they still made the right decision when factoring everything in.
    - sithadmin 8y ago
      Bingo!
  - sithadmin 8y ago
    >That's more than double the median income in SF. Irrelevant. I wasn't trying to optimize for % gain over median income in SF. I was trying to optimize for moderate improvement in overall quality of life compared to what I have now.
    - alex_young 8y ago
      "I was offered a position with one of my clients in SF for roughly double my current income in Houston, TX. After running the numbers with an attempt to maintain similar standards of living and leisure, it was simply impossible to make the math work out in my favor without significant sacrifices on either count." So assuming you were making ~200k, doubling that to 400k, it was still impossible to make your standard of living? I find that hard to believe.
      - sithadmin 8y ago
        I found it hard to believe too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I also built a model that put a lot of guesses about intangibles into numbers. It passed sanity checks when reviewed by several peers, but I could just have a bad model. Who knows.
      - URSpider94 8y ago
        If you are making $200k in Texas, you can afford to buy a 3,500 sq.ft. house with a pool on a half-acre+ lot with AC and a 2-car garage for, say, $400k, maybe less. In CA, you would pay well over $2MM for that same house anywhere within an hour’s drive in rush hour from either SF or Silicon Valley. Anywhere north of Sunnyvale, that house will run you a minimum of $3 million.
angersock 8y ago
And then they get hit with state income tax, which the state wastes on frivolous policies and nannying. No thanks.
- komali2 8y ago
  What examples of policies do you feel are wasteful?
  - abtinf 8y ago
    I grew up in CA and moved away just a few years ago, and I didn’t have an appreciation for the extraordinary corruption and wastefulness of state, county, and local policies. Only rarely did any single single policy seem particularly egregious or catastrophic. Then I moved to Washington State. No state income tax, but comparable sales and property taxes. Much less regulation at every level of government. The savings in income tax alone paid for my rent, until I bought a house. The house I bought is in an extremely high quality neighborhood. School ratings are almost maxed out. Professional or entrepreneurial neighbors. Responsive government services. My home costs less than a condo in south San Jose. I pay about half the Bay Area rate for full time childcare. Gas is significantly cheaper. 5 dozen eggs at Costco cost $6-8. Life is good. No one is dying in the streets. If anything, people are thriving and have hope to create a better future. It is not until I experienced the totality of difference between Silicon Valley and another west coast city (in my case Tacoma and its suburbs, though I suspect Portland is similar) that I groked the suffering inflicted by CA politics.
    - abritinthebay 8y ago
      So no specifics then? Just hand waving generalizations with no content?
      - abtinf 8y ago
        I shared my personal experience based on living in the bay area for 30 years. YMMV.
      - 8y ago

sithadmin 8y ago

I live here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_University_Place,_Texas#Demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_University_Place,_Texas#D...) and fit into the described demographics. SF in no way made sense at 2x my current income.

alex_young 8y ago
I must be missing something. The link you provided says ”The median income for a household in the city was $202,132, and the median income for a family was $227,425" That's more than double the median income in SF.
- meowface 8y ago
  More than double the median income and also (presumably) less than half the cost of living. So they still made the right decision when factoring everything in.
  - sithadmin 8y ago
    Bingo!
- sithadmin 8y ago
  >That's more than double the median income in SF. Irrelevant. I wasn't trying to optimize for % gain over median income in SF. I was trying to optimize for moderate improvement in overall quality of life compared to what I have now.
  - alex_young 8y ago
    "I was offered a position with one of my clients in SF for roughly double my current income in Houston, TX. After running the numbers with an attempt to maintain similar standards of living and leisure, it was simply impossible to make the math work out in my favor without significant sacrifices on either count." So assuming you were making ~200k, doubling that to 400k, it was still impossible to make your standard of living? I find that hard to believe.
    - sithadmin 8y ago
      I found it hard to believe too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I also built a model that put a lot of guesses about intangibles into numbers. It passed sanity checks when reviewed by several peers, but I could just have a bad model. Who knows.
    - URSpider94 8y ago
      If you are making $200k in Texas, you can afford to buy a 3,500 sq.ft. house with a pool on a half-acre+ lot with AC and a 2-car garage for, say, $400k, maybe less. In CA, you would pay well over $2MM for that same house anywhere within an hour’s drive in rush hour from either SF or Silicon Valley. Anywhere north of Sunnyvale, that house will run you a minimum of $3 million.

angersock 8y ago

And then they get hit with state income tax, which the state wastes on frivolous policies and nannying. No thanks.

komali2 8y ago
What examples of policies do you feel are wasteful?
- abtinf 8y ago
  I grew up in CA and moved away just a few years ago, and I didn’t have an appreciation for the extraordinary corruption and wastefulness of state, county, and local policies. Only rarely did any single single policy seem particularly egregious or catastrophic. Then I moved to Washington State. No state income tax, but comparable sales and property taxes. Much less regulation at every level of government. The savings in income tax alone paid for my rent, until I bought a house. The house I bought is in an extremely high quality neighborhood. School ratings are almost maxed out. Professional or entrepreneurial neighbors. Responsive government services. My home costs less than a condo in south San Jose. I pay about half the Bay Area rate for full time childcare. Gas is significantly cheaper. 5 dozen eggs at Costco cost $6-8. Life is good. No one is dying in the streets. If anything, people are thriving and have hope to create a better future. It is not until I experienced the totality of difference between Silicon Valley and another west coast city (in my case Tacoma and its suburbs, though I suspect Portland is similar) that I groked the suffering inflicted by CA politics.
  - abritinthebay 8y ago
    So no specifics then? Just hand waving generalizations with no content?
    - abtinf 8y ago
      I shared my personal experience based on living in the bay area for 30 years. YMMV.
    - 8y ago