10 ms·
Ask HN: How expensive is living in Silicon Valley
I thinking on moving there next year. I really want to jump in the tech action right away.
Where is the best place to move? How expensive could cost every month of living on average?
Thanks
- kentbrew 16y agoDon't forget to look in East Palo Alto, which isn't nearly as scary as people make it out to be.
- Mrdev4 16y agoI don't recommend EPA for anyone, most of the people who live there are trying to get out.
- frederickcook 16y agoGarry Tan from Posterous made this a while back: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111291639665197066699.00048b3c0d910bf1a232a http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0...
- templaedhel 16y agoThats really useful, especially for someone like me who has no idea of the parts of San Fransisco.
- c3o 16y agoAlso see: http://seldo.com/weblog/2010/09/04/san_francisco_city_guide_map_for_the_prospective_resident http://seldo.com/weblog/2010/09/04/san_francisco_city_guide_...
- templaedhel 16y agoI think the first one is slightingly less opinionated, more rational then this one. However, that makes this one much more fun to read.
- mk 16y agoCheck it out for yourself on the awesome padmapper: http://www.padmapper.com/?lat=37.69897768523249&lng=-122.43988037109376&minRent=0&maxRent=6000&searchTerms=&maxPricePerBedroom=6000&minBR=0&maxBR=10&minBA=1&maxAge=7&imagesOnly=false&cats=false&dogs=false&noFee=false&showSubs=true&showNonSubs=true&userId=-1&cl=true&apts=true&ood=true&forrent=true&zoom=12&favsOnly=false&workplaceLat=0&workplaceLong=0&maxTime=0 http://www.padmapper.com/?lat=37.69897768523249&lng=-122...
- wickedchicken 16y agoDamn... awesome is right. I'd be curious how they crawl all this data (especially the craigslist listings).
- drags 16y agoCraigslist has RSS feeds that respect categories/search terms: http://www.craigslist.org/about/rss http://www.craigslist.org/about/rss :) You're technically not supposed to use them for search engines specific to housing, but Craigslist doesn't seem very serious about enforcement.
- wickedchicken 16y agoI wonder if landlords will go after this like the hotel industry went after AirBnB. Any accurate information a potential renter has about other apartments in the area can only hurt the landlord.
- lethargicpanda 16y agoYou can also check : http://www.mapskrieg.com/view/sfbay/rooms-and-shares http://www.mapskrieg.com/view/sfbay/rooms-and-shares I guess that the database is the same (ie CraigsList)...
- aeontech 16y agohttp://www.housingmaps.com/ http://www.housingmaps.com/ is another excellent craigslist listings frontend with a bunch of filters built-in.
- veemjeem 16y agoPretty cheap in mountain view. I pay around $600 for rent (2 bedroom with roommate). Food prices are actually comparable/cheaper than other places in the US. If you shop at those asian grocery stores, you can get similar produce at about half the cost that Safeway/Kroger would normally sell at. Price for a normal cheap dinner on Castro St is around $8-12. If you're renting, Silicon Valley is actually comparable to the rest of the USA. When I lived in Atlanta, I paid around $500 for rent, but I had to drive a lot further to access public transportation.
- niico 16y agoFrom what you say living in Mo. View isnt' more expensive than living in Buenos Aires, Argentina where I am currently living. Thanks
- Psyonic 16y agoIt is, definitely. Getting your own apartment in MV is $1200 minimum if you want something you can actually call an apartment. Roommates can make it cheaper, ya, but it's not that cheap.
- _delirium 16y agoGets cheaper if you go further south, though. In Santa Clara / San Jose you can rent an entire (small) house for $1500.
- barrkel 16y agoIt looks to be cheaper than London, too. And salaries, of course, are much higher.
- usaar333 16y agoYou must have pretty high standards. Padmapper shows places in the $1050 range. I personally live 2 blocks from the Mt View border and am paying $1900 for a nice 3 bedroom.
- 16y ago
- LeBlanc 16y agoFood is also a lot more expensive. You can mitigate this a lot by cooking all your own food and not eating out. Shopping from low cost markets like The Milk Pail http://www.milkpail.com/ http://www.milkpail.com/ will help a lot. My recommendation for eating cheaply is to make sure to have good collection of spices. It costs a lot upfront (~$40-60) but it will allow you to subsist on really cheap food without going crazy. Living off rice and beans is a lot more fun and tasty when you can make masala rice.
- whyenot 16y agoThe Milk Pail is fantastic. Their produce is very inexpensive and because of the rapid turnover, the quality tends to be really good too. You can usually get great deals on cheese as well if you look for the sale items. Also, there is Ditmars Gourmet Meats and Wurst-Haus around the corner and up San Antonio. While prices on their other items can be high, their sausages are cheap, made in house, and excellent.
- nostromo 16y agoIf you have the space for it, grow an herb garden. Seriously. :) I never thought I would enjoy taking care of plants, but it's actually quite interesting. My latest addition is arugula, which so far seems super easy to grow and can provide an infinite amount of salads with little upkeep.
- cincinnatus 16y agoSecond this. Some basil and sage go a long way for pasta and other things. Rosemary and some parsley next. Then oregano. Salad greens are super easy, climate is good for it most of the year.
- teuobk 16y agoThe farmers markets are good too, and you can often find excellent deals on produce if you know where to look. I always liked the Menlo Park one (near the Trader Joe's) for a good balance of selection and affordability.
- nostromo 16y agoIn the spirit of openness... Rent: I live on Nob Hill in SF. I pay $1950 for a big, nice one bedroom with a little office and a small private yard. (100sq feet.) When I signed the lease I was making good money so it didn't seem expensive. Since then I've decided to focus on my start-up full time, so now it does seem slightly pricey. (I only pay 50% though -- I'm coupled.) I've lived in New York and Seattle, and SF is nowhere near as expensive as New York and nowhere near as affordable as Seattle (in terms of renting, not buying). Beyond rent, things are very affordable. Transportation: cheap, cars are optional (I don't need one; I hate mechanics and oil changes and parking...). I get my groceries delivered and use ZipCar when I have to drive. This is a huge savings and a good reason to live in the heart of the city. Instead of a gym, I just walk up the hill everyday. Healthcare: I'm on Cobra right now, but will qualify for SF City HealthCare for free soon, as I'll be making little money. This is a big reason to live in SF and not the peninsula. http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org Entertainment: The most expensive thing I do is eat out with friends semi-regularly. However, I've found that for geeks, there are a ton of meet ups and other social events that are 100% free -- and they're usually the best way to have fun. Other threads are noting the cost of rent in SF, but for me, the city health care coverage and not needing a car (or insurance, or gas, or parking) more than makes up for it.
- niico 16y agoSomeone should make a mini site for "Entrepreneurs/Roomate dating"! Like: Name, age, nationality, startup name, coding language, smoke? pets? girl/boyfriend?. Same for people looking to share their officespace
- samratjp 16y agoAgree to the first idea. Second one - this is a recent launch outta Rails Rumble: http://desksnear.me/ http://desksnear.me/
- warren_s 16y agoCurrently desksnear.me is focused on casual, short-term coworking/office sharing, but we're definitely interested in finding a way to connect startups who are looking to share a space on a longer-term basis.
- ig1 16y agoIt's probably hard to get critical mass, I'm looking for a flatshare in London at the moment and I've posted on my twitter to see if their were any startup folks with a spare room, and despite getting retweeted by some fairly prominent london startup people I didn't get much of a response. If you can't pull a good response from twitter I'm not sure a dedicated site has any chance.
- whyenot 16y agoI'd try and avoid San Francisco. Yes,it's beautiful, and if you know the muni public transportation system you can get around easily without a car, but rents can be high (like $1300 for a studio apartment that isn't scummy). I'd look in Mountain View or Sunnyvale. If keeping costs low is very important, the northern part of San Jose probably has the lowest rents ($800-900 for a large studio / one bedroom appt) for an area near Silicon Valley. Palo Alto and areas north can be quite pricey.
- Psyonic 16y agoWhere have you seen an $800 1 bdrm in North San Jose? You must have a different craigslist than I do.
- whyenot 16y agoI've seen one bedrooms occasionally for $850 and with some regularity for $900 on craigslist. I don't know what else to tell you. Good luck.
- jrockway 16y agoDepends on whether or not you have a car. You won't be able to survive out in the suburbs, but you'll be fine in SF proper. If you have a car for free, then go for the suburbs, but if you have to buy one then the "savings" you get from living in the middle of nowhere might not be very high. I visited Mountain View yesterday, and it was one of the most depressing places I have ever seen. It's the suburbs, but as expensive as a big city.
- dannyr 16y agoGoogle Headquarters. Diverse list of excellent restaurants (Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican, etc.) No heavy traffic Low crime rate Lots of startups especially on Castro st. Warmer by a few degrees than SF Hacker Dojo Sunday Farmers Market Yeah, it's depressing.
- blackguardx 16y ago
- jmtame 16y ago$300/month at palo alto hacker house if you don't mind roommates (who happen to be interested in startups too). i think i was paying ~$700/month at the mountain view hacker house.
- Mz 16y agoI used to live in Solano County, which is the cheap seats of the SF Bay Area. It is still the most expensive place I have ever lived but was a good bit cheaper than most of the rest of the Bay Area. There are more than 100 cities in the SFBA, so there is some flexibility on how expensive it is. You might try checking out bestplaces.net and city-data.com to get a better idea.
- bkhl 16y agoIt all depends where you live. If you would like to live in the city (San Francisco), one bedroom or studio can go up as much as $2000 per month. If you are considering to move around Palo Alto/Mountain View, the rent becomes around 12-1500s. If you are considering Sunnyvale/San Jose, the rent becomes 1000ish. If you are going to work at Mountain View/Palo Alto area, I highly recommend to live in Sunnyvale, because the rent isn't as expensive and it's not too far (5-15min drive on 101).
- niico 16y agoIf I move there. Let's say, Palo Alto/ Mo. View I would be probably working on my startup all day long. Maybe for a walk/gym for an hour or so. The only time I would need to move from there would be, maybe to attend to a meetup, meeting, etc. The question would be. How do I move from side to side. Public transportation? Is it safe to walk at night (Past 10/11/12pm). THanks
- cvg 16y agoMountain View is safe at night. I've walked around after 10 many times without issue. Transit doesn't have to be too bad. There is a train to Palo Alto and San Francisco and decent bus service. You can also rent a car from Enterprise for about $20 a day if you need to go somewhere away from transit.
- dannyr 16y agoI live in Mt View and go to the city about once a week. I take Caltrain ($6 each way) to the city but you can't stay too late. The last train from SF leaves at around midnight. It would suck if you miss it because a taxi would probably cost you $100. There is an excellent coworking space in Mt View - Hacker Dojo which is $100 a month. I used to live in SF but I prefer being in Mt View since it's cheaper and for me, safer. Also, you don't have to deal with parking. Not having a car might be a pain though. Get a bike at least. By the way, hit me up (danny -at- launchset.com). My cofounder and I are in Buenos Aires for the next 3 weeks.
- PStamatiou 16y agoI live in the Mission and have a ~400 sq foot studio in a not-vintage building (~1970s) for $1600/month (includes $250/month parking spot). I'm 4 blocks from Safeway, Muni rail, Bart, my gym, 2 blocks from other Muni buses.
- whatevers2009 16y agoI've lived in Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, Dallas Texas, and San Francisco as well as Silicon Valley and I can honestly say living in SF or Silicon Valley is way more expensive. Rent probably averages about $1700-$2300 for a decent one bedroom apartment and more for two bedroom per month. Utilities are about the same everywhere you live. Public transportation is a bit spendier than every other city I've lived in (Caltrain and BART costs). Unsure about the Bus, it's probably comparable. Sales Tax is ridiculously higher here than anywhere I've been. If you live in the city and eat out, expect an addition 3-4% health tax charged at most restaurants. Parking sucks in the city. Street cleaning tickets of $53 to $103 dollars are VERY common. Expect to bankroll a ton of parking meters whether you live downtown or not or pay a lot in parking garages if you plan on using your car to get around the city. Entertainment costs are also higher than most other places I've lived. A standard movie ticket here is like $11 or so up to $17 with IMAX per ticket per showing. That should give you a rough idea of cost. Groceries and Household Shopping. I've compared cost of stuff like shampoo and what not to cost I use to pay outside of California and noticed that for the same size bottle or smaller, I am paying possible a couple dollars more even from the same store. So cost of goods is slightly more expensive here base on a few comparisons I've done. That should give you a ROUGH estimate on how much things cost around here and what it would be like.
- barrkel 16y agoThis all looks pretty cheap from my London-oriented eyes. Coming from Ireland, I'm used to the equivalent of sales tax being 21%; the UK having 17.5 seems low. A reserved seat (so you don't have to show up early) in my local cinema (Islington Vue) runs to 17.31 USD according to today's rates, and that's just an ordinary cinema, not IMAX. And of course the other side of the equation is the increased salaries (outside of banks etc. in London, anyhow).
- suliamansaleh 16y agoare thier a lot of english(uk) people in silcon valley?
- jlees 16y agoThere are a fair few, but I don't run into other Brits that frequently in either the startup or work scenes. If I had to put a number on it, about 2/100 of the people I've met are British like me, 3-4/100 Aussie, 2-3/100 Singapore, and 10-20/100 "other european".
- feverishaaron 16y agoWe rent at $2,200.00/mo for a 4/2 in south sj. That would be 3-3.5k in mountain view or cupertino, when we looked in August. If you time it right, you can find cheaper places. The absolute worse time to move (highest rents) is right before school starts. Gas is $3.15/gal right now. Food is ranges from 0%-15% more than the midwest (our comparison point). Shopping at local markets and farmers markets for produce will save you quite a bit. Other chain stores and casual restaurants seem to cost slightly more than we were used to paying. Any service that requires direct labor (gardening, cleaning etc) is going to be significantly more expensive than other metros, because the base cost of living is so much higher.
- kd0amg 16y agoFood is ranges from 0%-15% more than the midwest (our comparison point). Where in the Midwest did you use for this comparison? As far as I can tell from visiting, most grocery items cost my parents (near Chicago) 50-150% more than I pay for them (in Michigan).
- j_baker 16y agoI live in the mission and pay $1850/month for rent. One nice thing about living in the city is that utilities are pretty cheap. I pay about $100/month for everything. In Texas, electricity was at least twice that. Plus food isn't terribly expensive nor is transportation. In short, rent is terrible, but if you can make that, SF isn't too bad a place to live.
- kd0amg 16y agoPlus food isn't terribly expensive nor is transportation. About how expensive are groceries? Most of the posts here only really mention rent, which isn't enough to fully describe cost of living.
- mbenjaminsmith 16y agoWhen I lived in SF last (2 - 3 years ago), groceries were inexpensive in comparison to rent and eating out. I think my girlfriend and I spent around $200 per month on groceries (shopping at a Safeway in the financial district) vs $2.1k for rent and $50 - 100$ every time we went out for a decent meal. If you want to be in the city and save money by cooking it does make a big difference.
- Tyrant505 16y agoNot sure why this data fact is absent in every single comment but: How much for a pint of beer? Six pack? (kind?)
- gojomo 16y ago...because real software startups involve a bit less drinking-while-coding than you might think from watching The Social Network?
- Tyrant505 16y agoWas it a good movie? I don't think I'll ever see it... but I like to gauge prices based on beer because it seems to give an overall perspective on value.
- gojomo 16y agoIt was a good movie, highly recommended overall, but the idea long coding sessions are strongly associated with beer-drinking was one of the few false notes. FYI, a pint in The City (SF itself) can range you from $2.50 to $6 depending on place and time.
- aeontech 16y agoSince most responses focus on SF or the peninsula, I want to add my 2c. Living in East Bay (Oakland or Berkeley) is also a good option. Rent in Emeryville/South Berkeley/North Oakland is cheaper than SF, but it's still easy to get to SF/Peninsula by BART. We were renting a 1400sq ft 3 bedroom house in Emeryville for $1750/mo a couple years back, and a 700sq ft 1 bedroom apartment in South Berkeley for $750/mo before that. An 1800 sq ft house in Oakland rents for about $2200. There's a lot of students in Berkeley, so it's also easier to find rooms/sublets than in SF, possibly. As far as public transit goes, it's a bit more painful than SF, but not too bad. My morning commute from Oakland to work in SOMA takes about 30 minutes - 10 minute walk, 15 minutes (2 stops) on BART, another 5 minute walk. No stress, no driving, no tolls, no parking fees ($3 dollars one way, versus $5 bridge toll, $20 for a day's parking downtown, and a couple bucks in gas you'd spend driving). http://housingmaps.com/ http://housingmaps.com/ (craigslist frontend) can give you a good idea about the price ranges around different locations in the Bay Area.
- _delirium 16y agoIf you work in SF, I agree the commute is easy, but if you work on the peninsula, it's not very fun trying to get from Berkeley to Palo Alto daily.
- aeontech 16y agoThat's true, but the OP said he's only planning to move here; hence, I imagine he's not tied to a particular job location yet. Also, I know plenty of people commuting to SF from Dublin/Pleasanton/Walnut Creek, which is comparable to getting from Berkeley to Palo Alto. But you're right, having to switch to Caltrain to go anywhere further south than Millbrae is a pain.
- bigbang 16y agoI pay 800$ for a single bed apt(~600-700 sq.ft) in Sunnyvale. Apartments which don't have gated community,pools,gym etc are cheaper. I realized I never used those anyway, so I moved to an apt which have none of these(but has covered parking). Usually these are smaller blocks of ~6 apts and older. There are plenty of those in south bay when I looked.
- lsc 16y agosilicon valley is way cheaper than SF, but it's much less friendly to people who don't have cars. If you live near a caltrain and you work for a major corporation, you can probably get away with not having a car (most major companies have company shuttles that go to the caltrain) but it will put a crimp in your social activities. Silicon Valley is essentially suburb. You can pay as much as you want on the high end... on the low end, a room in a house or shared appartment in the "poor" parts of Santa Clara or Sunnyvale might be $650/month. the upside, here, is that things near the train stops are generally cheaper. I rented a 2bed 1bath apartment right over the Lawrence express way caltrain in santa clara for $1250/month total ($625 per person.) If you want to live alone, the low end is $800-$1000. The interesting thing about the valley is that I don't know of any neighbourhoods south of east palo alto and north of San Jose that I'd feel uncomfortable walking around in at night. And most of San Jose is pretty okay, too, so don't be afraid of the low end. Food? in the grocery store, as far as I can tell, it costs about the same as anywhere. If you go out to eat, well, fast food is about as cheap as it is elsewhere. If you want to eat at local non-chains, you are looking at $8-$15 per meal, which is a bit more, I think, than most places. If I were moving here for the social scene, personally, I'd get a cheap shared room close to the hacker dojo in mountain view.
- teuobk 16y agoI lived for about a year in Palo Alto near El Camino and Page Mill. I had a 2-bedroom apartment (1050 sq ft) for which the rent was $1800. I split it with a roommate to bring the cost down to $900 for each of us. Utilities were another $100 per month or so, total.
- usaar333 16y agoFor pure rent, in Sunnyvale, I had a 3 bedroom house with $1900/month rent. I had the smallest room - and with 4 guys there - my rent hovered around $400. Utilities were pretty trivial ($20 month avg per person). I had a car, but could have lived with just a bike if money was an issue.
- invertedlambda 16y agoDefinitely depends on where you'll be working and commuting from/to. Commuting is a big deal in my book. My guide would be: if you work in the City, anywhere between SF and San Carlos is a good bet. You can avoid the morning commute by taking BART. If you work on the Peninsula, there's Caltrain for getting around. And you can take BART as far as Millbrae. Some companies (notably Genentech) have shuttles that take people from the big transit stations to work, but YMMV. Beware "The Oracle Mile". It's 1 mile North and South of Ralston Ave. on US-101. It is a parking lot every weekday between 8am and 9:30am. Evening commute also. I know some people have different experiences, but that's been what I run into most often. Generally, in the Bay Area (at least West Bay), either get to work before 8 or after 10. Otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time with all your other happy morning commuters. :P Places to live? If you can take the rent, the Peninsula is nice. Half Moon Bay is on the coast and works well if your work is close to the 92 freeway. I wasn't a fan of living in Pacifica, but some people are. Not much to do there as it's mainly a commuter town. Just my 2c.
- Mrdev4 16y agoI don't recommend San Jose, It took me a hour to get to Mountain View by car and longer by public transportation.I recommend Santa Clara.
- URSpider94 16y agoJust to ad a different perspective from a lot of the people on the list, family housing in Silicon Valley is MUCH more expensive than probably anywhere else in the country. I just moved out here in August, from Boston. We left behind a decent house in a nice suburb with good schools, for which we paid a little under $600,000. When I bought that home a few years ago, it seemed incredibly expensive. Out here, a comparable property in the heart of Silicon Valley will run you at least $1 million, if not $1.3.
- hkarthik 16y agoLOL how depressing. Guess I'll just have to live vicariously through the other posters. Lesson to the rest of you, get SV living out of your system before you settle down and have kids.
- bearwithclaws 16y agoPaul Stamatiou made a great post a while back on moving to SF: http://paulstamatiou.com/atlanta-to-san-francisco-moving-cross-country http://paulstamatiou.com/atlanta-to-san-francisco-moving-cro...