4 ms·

i don't know what part of the country you live in, but this 200k to 300k is barely scraping by with a middle class living in the bay area, especially if you jus

i don't know what part of the country you live in, but this 200k to 300k is barely scraping by with a middle class living in the bay area, especially if you just moved here. CA and the bay area's high cost of living means most people here with less than 200k/year are going to be really poor unless they bought a house over 20 years ago. Your not going to be able to attract talent to move to the bay area with sub 200K salaries. And since, Google and facebook have money to burn, they'd rather pay those high salaries than move to a more cost effective area.

tidepod12 7y ago
I see this comment a lot, but it's just not true. If $300k was "barely scraping by", then it would be impossible for people making less than $100k to even live at all in the bay area, and yet the average income in SF is indeed $75k. In other parts of this thread, an SFer mentions that with a salary of $300k, he saves $100,000 a year after paying for his 'expensive hobbies' without even trying . Another commenter says they have ~$13,000 per month in disposable income (after rent in a nice apartment, utilities, and food). Thats certainly not "scraping by" to me.
- thorwasdfasdf 7y ago
  It's different if you already live here. If you already live here probably you have some arrangement: maybe you're in a rent protected home (75% of SF is like that), or maybe you live with 5 other roommates or maybe live with parents, etc. It's different, if you're moving to here from another area you're not going to be able to get one of those rent protected rentals.
  - tidepod12 7y ago
    I just went shopping online for apartments in SF. If I were to move there now, a 1 BR in a very nice luxury tower in Nob Hill will run me about $3,700/mo. And let's throw in, say, $200/mo for utilities and expenses? And let's give a very generous $1000/mo for food expenses? According to a tax calculator, a $200k salary in SF is about $130k/year take home, or about $11k/month. After rent and expenses, that's still $5,100 in disposable take-home pay every month. That's not scraping by.
jkubicek 7y ago
This is incredibly out of touch. I moved to the Bay Area on a $120k household income, lived in Menlo Park and did fine. We were never going to be able to buy a house, but I wouldn’t describe our situation as “barely scraping by”
winrid 7y ago
Nah. I started out w/ $65k and lived 40mins from the valley. I would't have considered myself poor (car, motorcycle, computers...)

tidepod12 7y ago

I see this comment a lot, but it's just not true. If $300k was "barely scraping by", then it would be impossible for people making less than $100k to even live at all in the bay area, and yet the average income in SF is indeed $75k. In other parts of this thread, an SFer mentions that with a salary of $300k, he saves $100,000 a year after paying for his 'expensive hobbies' without even trying . Another commenter says they have ~$13,000 per month in disposable income (after rent in a nice apartment, utilities, and food). Thats certainly not "scraping by" to me.

thorwasdfasdf 7y ago
It's different if you already live here. If you already live here probably you have some arrangement: maybe you're in a rent protected home (75% of SF is like that), or maybe you live with 5 other roommates or maybe live with parents, etc. It's different, if you're moving to here from another area you're not going to be able to get one of those rent protected rentals.
- tidepod12 7y ago
  I just went shopping online for apartments in SF. If I were to move there now, a 1 BR in a very nice luxury tower in Nob Hill will run me about $3,700/mo. And let's throw in, say, $200/mo for utilities and expenses? And let's give a very generous $1000/mo for food expenses? According to a tax calculator, a $200k salary in SF is about $130k/year take home, or about $11k/month. After rent and expenses, that's still $5,100 in disposable take-home pay every month. That's not scraping by.

jkubicek 7y ago

This is incredibly out of touch. I moved to the Bay Area on a $120k household income, lived in Menlo Park and did fine. We were never going to be able to buy a house, but I wouldn’t describe our situation as “barely scraping by”

winrid 7y ago

Nah. I started out w/ $65k and lived 40mins from the valley. I would't have considered myself poor (car, motorcycle, computers...)