5 ms·

I briefly browsed Zillow in Seattle. It looks like a good 2-3 bd house is 700k+. And of course you need a car since public transport isn’t a thing there. Sendin

by f6v 5y ago

I briefly browsed Zillow in Seattle. It looks like a good 2-3 bd house is 700k+. And of course you need a car since public transport isn’t a thing there. Sending children to a good colleage is probably 50k+ a year just in tuition. I get a feeling money is different there.

loeg 5y ago
> And of course you need a car since public transport isn’t a thing there. What? Seattle has one of the most utilized public transit systems in the US.
- plandis 5y ago
  Not to mention University of Washington is like $12k/yr and is a great school for CS. Literally a signing bonus at a large tech company is enough to likely pay off that amount assuming you went without scholarships or other tuition reductions.
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
> And of course you need a car since public transport isn’t a thing there. Are we talking about Seattle? We definitely have public transit here. > Sending children to a good colleage is probably 50k+ a year just in tuition. If they don't get into UW you mean? UW in-state tuition is only $11,745 (I say "only", but it is much higher than when I went there). However, it is a very competitive state university to get into.
- techsupporter 5y ago
  > We definitely have public transit here. I suppose this light rail train I am watching go by outside my window is just a mirage or something. Same for these buses, obviously a plant.
- f6v 5y ago
  Never been, but imagined it to be like SF where everyone complains about 3 hours of daily commute driving the car.
coding123 5y ago
It's comical though - the reason the pay is so high is because the housing prices are so high. The housing prices are so high because the pay is so high. It's a never ending cycle.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Housing prices are high because the supply of housing is very low relative to demand from people who have the ability to pay a high price. If you took the same amount of high earners and dropped them in an area with five times as many equivalent utility houses, then prices would not be high even though there are the same number of high earners. Hence high housing prices are not a result of a population of high earners simply existing. As an example, I can afford and am willing to pay $5 for an apple, but I will not because I can easily find an equivalent one for $1.5.
  - coding123 5y ago
    Well that doesn't happen. High earners aren't "dumped" somewhere by some magical god that moves people around. There's often some reason a bunch of high earners are somewhere and when it happens the tap doesn't turn off. It just keeps going until there are no homes left. And at that point there's high pressure for low income people to sell because of the ability for them to get $1.5MM for their $200K house.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  ...with an interesting "side effect": it allows most people in those cities to buy plenty goods and services made by people in poor countries. And not the opposite.
- mrep 5y ago
  My target comp here in chicago is $250,000 for the level below senior software engineer and average home price here is $303,559 [0]. Pay is usually max(COL, local market rate). You don't need a super high COL if the local market is very competitive, but COL can raise the pay because you still need to convince people to move to your location and most people won't do that if it has an abnormally higher cost of living without a corresponding pay increase. The reason house prices are high in Seattle is because geography limits how well they can sprawl to build new houses and lots of people don't like higher density housing. [0]: https://www.zillow.com/chicago-il/home-values/ https://www.zillow.com/chicago-il/home-values/
karaterobot 5y ago
Doesn't Amazon provide a shuttle service for employees? Microsoft does, so does Google I believe. There's also a reasonably good bus system here, and they're working on light rail.
- masterof0 5y ago
  It does
- argc 5y ago
  Yeah, shuttle service is pretty good, buses are pretty good, and light rail is getting better.

by f6v 5y ago

loeg 5y ago

> And of course you need a car since public transport isn’t a thing there. What? Seattle has one of the most utilized public transit systems in the US.

plandis 5y ago
Not to mention University of Washington is like $12k/yr and is a great school for CS. Literally a signing bonus at a large tech company is enough to likely pay off that amount assuming you went without scholarships or other tuition reductions.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

> And of course you need a car since public transport isn’t a thing there. Are we talking about Seattle? We definitely have public transit here. > Sending children to a good colleage is probably 50k+ a year just in tuition. If they don't get into UW you mean? UW in-state tuition is only $11,745 (I say "only", but it is much higher than when I went there). However, it is a very competitive state university to get into.

techsupporter 5y ago
> We definitely have public transit here. I suppose this light rail train I am watching go by outside my window is just a mirage or something. Same for these buses, obviously a plant.
f6v 5y ago
Never been, but imagined it to be like SF where everyone complains about 3 hours of daily commute driving the car.

coding123 5y ago

It's comical though - the reason the pay is so high is because the housing prices are so high. The housing prices are so high because the pay is so high. It's a never ending cycle.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Housing prices are high because the supply of housing is very low relative to demand from people who have the ability to pay a high price. If you took the same amount of high earners and dropped them in an area with five times as many equivalent utility houses, then prices would not be high even though there are the same number of high earners. Hence high housing prices are not a result of a population of high earners simply existing. As an example, I can afford and am willing to pay $5 for an apple, but I will not because I can easily find an equivalent one for $1.5.
- coding123 5y ago
  Well that doesn't happen. High earners aren't "dumped" somewhere by some magical god that moves people around. There's often some reason a bunch of high earners are somewhere and when it happens the tap doesn't turn off. It just keeps going until there are no homes left. And at that point there's high pressure for low income people to sell because of the ability for them to get $1.5MM for their $200K house.
goodpoint 5y ago
...with an interesting "side effect": it allows most people in those cities to buy plenty goods and services made by people in poor countries. And not the opposite.
mrep 5y ago
My target comp here in chicago is $250,000 for the level below senior software engineer and average home price here is $303,559 [0]. Pay is usually max(COL, local market rate). You don't need a super high COL if the local market is very competitive, but COL can raise the pay because you still need to convince people to move to your location and most people won't do that if it has an abnormally higher cost of living without a corresponding pay increase. The reason house prices are high in Seattle is because geography limits how well they can sprawl to build new houses and lots of people don't like higher density housing. [0]: https://www.zillow.com/chicago-il/home-values/ https://www.zillow.com/chicago-il/home-values/

karaterobot 5y ago

Doesn't Amazon provide a shuttle service for employees? Microsoft does, so does Google I believe. There's also a reasonably good bus system here, and they're working on light rail.

masterof0 5y ago
It does
argc 5y ago
Yeah, shuttle service is pretty good, buses are pretty good, and light rail is getting better.