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If houses are so expensive vs labor, you could always buy some land and have one built? The central valley city I was talking about is Tracy, CA. Without traffi

If houses are so expensive vs labor, you could always buy some land and have one built? The central valley city I was talking about is Tracy, CA. Without traffic, it's takes 1 hour driving to get to the tech companies. Monday to Friday at rush hour it would take 2 hours. 90 minutes offpeak at 9am instead of 7am. Virtually zero tech workers are willing to make that drive. Also, quality of life in Tracy is pretty poor. Property crime is pretty big. Virtually nothing for children to do. Young adults go to the same 5-6 average restaurants and that's it. I'd much prefer to live in a town near a nice city in Austria.

aeyes 5y ago
Labor is expensive though. It's just that your income in relation to labor cost is relatively low due to high taxes, health insurance, pension fund and so on. Including your employers payments you go home with maybe 40% of what the company pays for your work. Building even a simple new home will set you back at least 300k.
- namecheapTA 5y ago
  I guess quit your job for a year and build your own home! Maybe get into the home building business altogether.
  - ChuckNorris89 5y ago
    >I guess quit your job for a year and build your own home! Who can build a house in a year by himself? Even with a group of skilled professionals it can take longer. Plus you'll be on zero income for a whole year. >Maybe get into the home building business altogether. Easier said than done. In Europe this is a credentialized profession so for insurance purposes not everyone can just roll up their sleeves anymore and just start building houses like it's 1886.
ascar 5y ago
Building houses in Germany (and Austria should be the same) is pretty expensive. Houses here are built to last 100+ years out of mostly stone-based materials with expensive wiring, insulation and heating. Wooden houses with electrical HVAC taking care of cooling and heating is basically non existant here. Most houses don't even have an HVAC system, but just a heating system (i.e. no ventilation, no cooling). The sturdy way to build immensely drives up costs for material and labor.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  The high real estate prices Germany have more to do with the price of land/area, bureaucracy around building and nimbyism rather than material costs and labor.
  - ascar 5y ago
    I wasn't talking about real estate prices. I was literally talking about construction costs. Having just been involved in building a small/medium 3 story + basement house for over 1 million Euros (we already owned the land), I agree about the bureaucracy driving costs (mostly through mandated actions adding high labor costs), but your other points were irrelevant. Construction prices are crazy when compared to the wood construction often found in the US.

aeyes 5y ago

Labor is expensive though. It's just that your income in relation to labor cost is relatively low due to high taxes, health insurance, pension fund and so on. Including your employers payments you go home with maybe 40% of what the company pays for your work. Building even a simple new home will set you back at least 300k.

namecheapTA 5y ago
I guess quit your job for a year and build your own home! Maybe get into the home building business altogether.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  >I guess quit your job for a year and build your own home! Who can build a house in a year by himself? Even with a group of skilled professionals it can take longer. Plus you'll be on zero income for a whole year. >Maybe get into the home building business altogether. Easier said than done. In Europe this is a credentialized profession so for insurance purposes not everyone can just roll up their sleeves anymore and just start building houses like it's 1886.

ascar 5y ago

Building houses in Germany (and Austria should be the same) is pretty expensive. Houses here are built to last 100+ years out of mostly stone-based materials with expensive wiring, insulation and heating. Wooden houses with electrical HVAC taking care of cooling and heating is basically non existant here. Most houses don't even have an HVAC system, but just a heating system (i.e. no ventilation, no cooling). The sturdy way to build immensely drives up costs for material and labor.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
The high real estate prices Germany have more to do with the price of land/area, bureaucracy around building and nimbyism rather than material costs and labor.
- ascar 5y ago
  I wasn't talking about real estate prices. I was literally talking about construction costs. Having just been involved in building a small/medium 3 story + basement house for over 1 million Euros (we already owned the land), I agree about the bureaucracy driving costs (mostly through mandated actions adding high labor costs), but your other points were irrelevant. Construction prices are crazy when compared to the wood construction often found in the US.