8 ms·
My son notes that he can buy in his midwestern hometown, the fanciest house on a bluff overlooking a river and a park on an acre and with 3000 sq ft, for what i
by JoeAltmaier 5y ago
My son notes that he can buy in his midwestern hometown, the fanciest house on a bluff overlooking a river and a park on an acre and with 3000 sq ft, for what in Santa Clara would buy a burned-out trailer.
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoBut then you would be in that midwestern town ... not saying thats bad but it better be what you want. There is a reason the median price in Sunnyvale is already $2.3M. No snow, 300+ days of sun ... running a little low on water tho. Ive lived all over the country and while Central Coast Ca is relatively expensive compared to other places I could never be as happy elsewhere. Edit: Further, I am willing to bet whoever bought the house in Sunnyvale still works (probably a lot). If you buy a $2.3M house in the midwest you aint commuting to a job.
- selectodude 5y agoYou're casting a very narrow net on what you consider "the midwest" there. I assure you that there are literally millions of people here that both live in $1+ million dollar houses and commute into work every day. I'm one of them :/
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoFair enough. There are many urban centers in the midwest that are very expensive. But im pretty sure we were not talking about those places. Edit: Also rural centers that are very exclusive (Jackson Hole etc).
- ghaff 5y agoJackson Hole is certainly not in the Midwest. I'm not especially familiar with exclusive rural areas in the Midwest but they may well exist.
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoYeah, I couldnt think of any either.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoLake Geneva, Wisconsin?
- Wonnk13 5y agoIt's like Chicago doesn't exist in the collective conscientious of the east and west coast white collar class. ILL is a dumpster fire of a state, but the COL to quality of life ratio is pretty excellent as far I'm concerned. Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Detroit are all fun cities too. I say this as someone who went to college in Boston/NYC and lived all over the Acela corridor and London.
- ghaff 5y agoIt exists. But it's viewed as houses in the middle of a cornfield or a decaying steel town, no decent jobs, no culture, lousy weather, etc. To the last point, there are a lot of people, especially on the West coast who really can't imagine living anywhere with real winters. To be honest, you don't hear much about Boston either although I think it's something like #3 in VC funding and has a lot of tech of various kinds.
- Spooky23 5y agoBoston has the combination of yankee hospitality and New Jersey charm, just substitute rotaries for “no left turns”. It’s also an old place with weird enclaves unknown to outsiders. You may find your lovely townhome is adjacent to a superfund site.
- the_doctah 5y ago>It exists. But it's viewed as houses in the middle of a cornfield or a decaying steel town, no decent jobs, no culture, lousy weather, etc. Who views it that way? People who have never been there and also know nothing about it? People who have never left California?
- chipotle_coyote 5y agoI don't actually think anyone -- statistically speaking -- from California views Chicago that way. There is a stereotype of Californians which feels unusually pernicious which I see a lot on HN, generally either from people who have never been to the Bay Area or feel they "escaped" the Bay Area and take every opportunity to tell people that they bought an 8000 square foot mansion for $100K, pay $7.99 a month for 100Gbps internet service, and so on. I kid, but seriously, many of us have actually been to other cities across the United States and the world and have appreciation for them. There are many places I would be happy in besides the SF Bay Area. I would be able to find friends and good microbreweries and good craft coffee, cocktail bars, interesting cheap restaurants, interesting expensive restaurants, museums, nature hikes, the whole shebang. Some of my absolute favorite examples of each of those are outside the SF Bay Area! It's simply that so far, I haven't found a metro area (at least in the US) that can combine a similar concentration of such places with a comparable climate, tech job market, and markedly cheaper cost of living.
- KerrAvon 5y agoSunnyvale’s in the south SF Bay Area. The central coast is further south and considerably less expensive but also more isolated. The other thing persistently lowering quality of life all over CA besides water getting scarce and high taxes is the wildfire smoke. There are benefits to CA, but there are definite downsides.
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoIm not sure what you mean by high taxes. A house in texas comparably priced to mine is almost 3x my property tax and I get the majority of my income tax back. Texas sales tax is like 1% less than in my town. I just dont see it.
- selectodude 5y ago>A house in texas comparably priced to mine is almost 3x my property tax A house in Texas comparably priced to yours is probably 14 acres in central Dallas.
- yurishimo 5y agoAs someone in Dallas, not quite, but your point is still valid :)
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoAnd again, then youd be in Dallas (which has harsher water restrictions than here now). Ive been there, I bought here. Im glad everyone that is there enjoys it tho.
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoNorCal and SoCal are attitudes more than actual points. I consider Monterey Bay to Morro Bay Central Coast. I live 3 miles from Monterey Bay and ~40 from Sunnyvale. Greater area San Jose people seem to consider themselves 'Bay Area' rather than NorCal but it is easy to spot the ones that do consider themselves NorCal.
- davidw 5y ago> There is a reason the median price in Sunnyvale is already $2.3M Primarily the dire lack of housing and the local politics that keep it from being built. Granted, you'll always be able to get more land in the midwest, but the lack of homes is a policy choice.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoThe demand curve of deep pocketed buyers is just as important as the supply curve of housing they want (location, size, quality, etc).
- 908087 5y ago
- silicon2401 5y ago> No snow, 300+ days of sun ... running a little low on water All reasons I will never live in California. My ideal is four seasons, generous servings of rain and snow throughout the year, ideally never above 60 F, and not worrying about water. I do whatever I can to encourage people to keep flocking to NYC/LA/SF/etc so they stay out of everywhere else
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoThat's cool. To each there own.
- taylodl 5y ago300+ days of sun is awful. I'm not even joking. No seasons, no thanks!
- quantified 5y agoYes you are commuting to your job when offices open. Suburbs of the big Midwest cities have lots of 2.3mm+ prices and you work downtown in finance, tech or whatever. Quite a few inner-city houses built by the original rich classes of those cities demand those prices too. Go where you are happy, spend as much as you want. Sunnyvale is a cultural desert compared to the Twin Cities, Chicago, Detroit. And on its way to being a real desert too.
- ac29 5y agoThis particular house is a 15 minute walk or 5 minute bike from the new Apple headquarters as well.
- beamatronic 5y ago
- werm82 5y agoIs that your perception of the entirety of the midwest? California isn't just Tesla driving, hoodie wearing, tech types. BRB, going to meet a friend for lunch at Chili's.
- azth 5y agoHonest advice, you should probably take a break from the media.
- stephencanon 5y agoThe house in question in the article is in Sunnyvale, so it's entirely possible that the closest fine dining is ... "Chili's". I love the Bay Area, but suburbs are suburbs. Edit: I checked; it's not quite the closest "fine dining", but there actually is one a short walk away =)
- thghtihadanacct 5y agoA very good point but el camino leads to koreatown or the city so hopefully you have a car or enjoy the bus/train. That road is terrifying on a bike tho.
- stephencanon 5y agoDon't need to go to Koreatown for a good meal. Gochi and Orenchi Ramen are both within walking distance. Also a few good dim sum options there.
- KerrAvon 5y agoYou can do a lot better than Chilis. There’s a huge variety of dining options in and around the South Bay, some of them on the higher end. I think the question is more whether the Chili’s is the only game in town or whether you have options that aren’t Chili’s or fast food.
- dhosek 5y agoWhen I had a house in Claremont, CA I often found myself traveling a lot. I used to play the "what will my house buy here?" game. Invariably it was always something much nicer, but I liked living in Claremont. I lost that house to unemployment in the 90s recession/housing market crash. Every so often I'll look at it on redfin. It's been improved a fair amount since then, but not so much that it seems like it's really worth 5 times what I paid for it in the 90s.
- tata71 5y agoAre you accounting for the currency being worth less per unit than in the 90s?
- dhosek 5y agoFrom https://www.usinflationcalculator.com https://www.usinflationcalculator.com I get that the value of the house should have increased by 92.4% from the purchase price in 1993. The last sale (four months ago) was up by 438%¹. It gets worse if I go from the sale price in 1997 where inflation shows 73.2% but the increase was 525% ⸻⸻⸻ 1. To be explicit, the house sold for 5.48× more than the purchase price.
- kiernanmcgowan 5y agoA friend of mine lives in a 2k person town in Wisconsin, about a 30min drive from Madison. The house next to his is on the market for ~$100k (3 bed room, in need of some maintenance). It some ways it's unreal that a house can be that cheap, but considering that I'm not even buying at that price is probably the reason why its that cheap.
- sys_64738 5y agoIt's not the house but the land. I've seen rundown shacks where I am sell for $1.5m because they're nice allotment size against a large lake. New owners knockdown the shack and put up a new build.
- lnanek2 5y agoSalary differences are huge, though. I recently got an offer for a $100k perm. raise + relocation benefit on top of that to move to Mountain View - and I'm not in a cheap city. My current company as well, if you move somewhere cheaper in the current remote work environment, they cut your salary.