4 ms·

What is the cost of living there and the income tax rates? A 1 bedroom apartment around Palo Alto and places close to it can cost something like $1800/month.

by mahyarm 15y ago

What is the cost of living there and the income tax rates? A 1 bedroom apartment around Palo Alto and places close to it can cost something like $1800/month. Just in rent alone you can 'make' an extra $12k-24k per year in rent savings if a 1 bedroom is $800 in Haifa.

yuvadam 15y ago
Funny you mention it, Israel is going through some serious protests right now about the ridiculous living costs [1]. This thread is too small to encompass the entire debate, but basically taxes, social security, mandatory health insurance and employee participation in 401k equivalents end up chewing away about 40-45% of said salaries. Living in Tel Aviv is roughly 70% the cost of living in NYC (measured by rent prices). And remember that we make much less than NYers. Living in Haifa, for example, is practically impossible if you want to commute to Tel Aviv. Public transportation is horrible in Israel. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_housing_protests_in_Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_housing_protests_in_Israel
- wyclif 15y ago
  Why would you want to commute from Haifa to Tel Aviv? Just get an apartment in Tel Aviv.
ahalan 15y ago
I used to rent a 1100sq ft 2br for $350 next to Ben Gurion University in Beer-Sheva a couple years back I have a friend who's currently renting a great 1br right in the middle of Tel Aviv (near Dizengof) for ~$600 Dev salaries are largely in the range mentioned by yuvadam, may be a bit on the high end, many engineers and normal (non-eng) people are making less than 10k NIS/month There are tons of HW engineering jobs in FPGA, VHDL, ASIC design, telecom, RF, optics, embedded, may be even more than pure software jobs. If you work for IBM, Intel, Cisco R&D in the Wadi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Wadi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Wadi ) you're likely to make up to ~80-90k/y as a senior (non-managing) engineer with >10y of experience. It's really a mecca for hardware startups, much more active than Silicon Valley in that domain (historically due to military contracts); if you're looking for top engineers to design a VLSI system-on-chip or some super-smart router, or a smartphone or something, I'd probably search there first.
- maayank 15y ago
  If you have solid former programming experience (i.e. from certain units in the Army, or Basmach) you could easily (well, for different values of easy ;) find a full time job north of 25K NIS per month. edit: 600$ for a good 1BR? (an apartment, not a room) When is his lease due to end? (I'm serious, if you don't mind me asking and he's not set on renewing :)
  - ahalan 15y ago
    she doesn't want to move out, it's a good deal:)
wyclif 15y ago
Not only that, you're not slumming it in Haifa-- it's a beautiful city with a great beach, restaurants, and culture of its own. I met my wife in Haifa; one night we walked around Mt. Carmel and Baha'i Gardens (one of the most beautiful gardens I've visited). Wonderful place to live.
- maayank 15y ago
  That said, you can't compare it to the more urban atmosphere of Tel Aviv. I don't want to start an argument about it, but it's hard to call Haifa comparable to Tel Aviv when it comes to the number of quality restaurants, night life, events, etc. (IMHO of course, but I think I'm in the consensus ;) I would even say it's true culture-wise (the main Israeli theaters are in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Opera, main dance ensembles). I'm only mentioning this for any non-Israeli who thinks of living in Israel. Public transport is pretty bad between the cities for daily commuting and I would advise researching residency options pretty carefully and not just automatically go the "short distance and cheap" route.
  - wyclif 15y ago
    Oh, I wouldn't compare Haifa to Tel Aviv; that's an apples/oranges comparison. Haifa is less metropolitan to be sure, but it has a certain charm. It's hardly provincial, though. A great mixed-culture city. Haifa University and the Technion are there, as well as Google and MSFT offices. I also wonder if there is any startup scene in Jerusalem.
    - maayank 15y ago
      Also: Yahoo, Intel, IBM, Philips, Qualcomm. The only one missing all the fun now is Facebook :)
      - nivertech 15y ago
        FB acquired Israeli Snaptu (though they not located in Haifa) http://www.snaptu.com/a/facebook http://www.snaptu.com/a/facebook
maayank 15y ago
http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv/new-york-city http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv... And while I don't see Palo Alto there: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv/san-jose http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv...

by mahyarm 15y ago

yuvadam 15y ago

Funny you mention it, Israel is going through some serious protests right now about the ridiculous living costs [1]. This thread is too small to encompass the entire debate, but basically taxes, social security, mandatory health insurance and employee participation in 401k equivalents end up chewing away about 40-45% of said salaries. Living in Tel Aviv is roughly 70% the cost of living in NYC (measured by rent prices). And remember that we make much less than NYers. Living in Haifa, for example, is practically impossible if you want to commute to Tel Aviv. Public transportation is horrible in Israel. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_housing_protests_in_Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_housing_protests_in_Israel

wyclif 15y ago
Why would you want to commute from Haifa to Tel Aviv? Just get an apartment in Tel Aviv.

ahalan 15y ago

I used to rent a 1100sq ft 2br for $350 next to Ben Gurion University in Beer-Sheva a couple years back I have a friend who's currently renting a great 1br right in the middle of Tel Aviv (near Dizengof) for ~$600 Dev salaries are largely in the range mentioned by yuvadam, may be a bit on the high end, many engineers and normal (non-eng) people are making less than 10k NIS/month There are tons of HW engineering jobs in FPGA, VHDL, ASIC design, telecom, RF, optics, embedded, may be even more than pure software jobs. If you work for IBM, Intel, Cisco R&D in the Wadi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Wadi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Wadi ) you're likely to make up to ~80-90k/y as a senior (non-managing) engineer with >10y of experience. It's really a mecca for hardware startups, much more active than Silicon Valley in that domain (historically due to military contracts); if you're looking for top engineers to design a VLSI system-on-chip or some super-smart router, or a smartphone or something, I'd probably search there first.

maayank 15y ago
If you have solid former programming experience (i.e. from certain units in the Army, or Basmach) you could easily (well, for different values of easy ;) find a full time job north of 25K NIS per month. edit: 600$ for a good 1BR? (an apartment, not a room) When is his lease due to end? (I'm serious, if you don't mind me asking and he's not set on renewing :)
- ahalan 15y ago
  she doesn't want to move out, it's a good deal:)

wyclif 15y ago

Not only that, you're not slumming it in Haifa-- it's a beautiful city with a great beach, restaurants, and culture of its own. I met my wife in Haifa; one night we walked around Mt. Carmel and Baha'i Gardens (one of the most beautiful gardens I've visited). Wonderful place to live.

maayank 15y ago
That said, you can't compare it to the more urban atmosphere of Tel Aviv. I don't want to start an argument about it, but it's hard to call Haifa comparable to Tel Aviv when it comes to the number of quality restaurants, night life, events, etc. (IMHO of course, but I think I'm in the consensus ;) I would even say it's true culture-wise (the main Israeli theaters are in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Opera, main dance ensembles). I'm only mentioning this for any non-Israeli who thinks of living in Israel. Public transport is pretty bad between the cities for daily commuting and I would advise researching residency options pretty carefully and not just automatically go the "short distance and cheap" route.
- wyclif 15y ago
  Oh, I wouldn't compare Haifa to Tel Aviv; that's an apples/oranges comparison. Haifa is less metropolitan to be sure, but it has a certain charm. It's hardly provincial, though. A great mixed-culture city. Haifa University and the Technion are there, as well as Google and MSFT offices. I also wonder if there is any startup scene in Jerusalem.
  - maayank 15y ago
    Also: Yahoo, Intel, IBM, Philips, Qualcomm. The only one missing all the fun now is Facebook :)
    - nivertech 15y ago
      FB acquired Israeli Snaptu (though they not located in Haifa) http://www.snaptu.com/a/facebook http://www.snaptu.com/a/facebook

maayank 15y ago

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv/new-york-city http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv... And while I don't see Palo Alto there: http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv/san-jose http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/tel-aviv...