5 ms·

I was recently contemplating moving to the bay area from Midwest. Then a few months ago i shared a hostel room in Edinburgh with a guy from Portland. When we go

by sakopov 14y ago

I was recently contemplating moving to the bay area from Midwest. Then a few months ago i shared a hostel room in Edinburgh with a guy from Portland. When we got to talking he told me that he is originally from San Francisco but decided to ran away to Portland to escape nearly insane cost of living. I don't know how much of this is true but he was telling me that some dingy studio apartments have 10-15 people in line to sign contract. Landlords are reluctant to negotiate mainly because the next person in line is a Googler who will pay $1000/month above the asking price without thinking twice. A couple of months later, an acquaintance of mine got a gig as a software engineer at Apple. When i got in touch with him, he told me that he's dishing out $5K/month to pay rent for the house his family lives in. My jaw dropped.

prostoalex 14y ago
Is your friend renting in Cupertino? That place has some other dynamics, such as excellent school district, so families compete price-wise to get there.
greggman 14y ago
I can verify that most apartments have a line. I visited one a half hour after there open house started. The realtor at the entrance said they already had 20 applications and 7 deposit checks so they didn't need mine but that I could look at the apartment if I wanted. It wasn't a good apartment IMO. 14th and Dolores That said, people do manage to find apartments. But yes, they are over priced. You can live in SF without a car so I suppose compared to most cities you could add the cost of a car minus the cost of public transportation to your rent.
benkay 14y ago
My "family" of roommates pays $1625 for a 1,408 ft2 3-br (from the 1880s) in Goose Hollow, one of the residential neighborhoods in downtown Portland. Gas can runs as high as ~150/mo in the winter, but that's not a bad deal for being able to: - chain bikes to the front porch without fear of theft (indefinitely). - leave our back door unlocked every day, and the front door most as well. - walk to some of the best coffee shops in the best coffee town in America (Public Domain, for instance). - walk to Powell's. - walk to network with ANY tech company in the downtown area. - eat amazing food for at most (95th percentile) 20 bucks/entree. - order fancy cocktails for ~9/ea. - order amazing beers for 4.50/pt. (max). - meet brilliant people (MBar's a good place to start). - breathe clean air. - not have to live in samey-samey suburban hell. - surround yourself with nature, wander through the nation's largest in-city park and visit natural wonders like the Columbia Gorge and Mt. Hood. The benefits are not completely enumerable online. Build your dream life here!
ryguytilidie 14y ago
"Landlords are reluctant to negotiate mainly because the next person in line is a Googler who will pay $1000/month above the asking price without thinking twice." I actually lived in 388 Beale, right by the Google towers. My rent went up exactly $1,000/month when Google started renting units at insane prices for their interns/traveling employees. So yeah, pretty familiar with this and this is why I no longer live in SF. Also, it really feels like shit to get pushed out of your apartment so some sales exec at Google can stay there once a week. Yay efficiency?
jseliger 14y ago
>Then a few months ago i shared a hostel room in Edinburgh with a guy from Portland. When we got to talking he told me that he is originally from San Francisco but decided to ran away to Portland to escape nearly insane cost of living. This article: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_71.htm http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_71.htm appeared on HN the other day and explains why and how California as a whole is losing native-born residents; housing costs are a huge component of the problem.
akurilin 14y ago
It's pretty normal, I've seen crowds of 10-15 people at each apartment in the city when I was looking for one myself. 3k/mo for a 1 bedroom is absolutely normal outside the sketchier areas at this point. These days the startup crowd who can't afford those prices and doesn't "know a guy" lives outside the city in places like Daly City, Oakland etc.

by sakopov 14y ago

prostoalex 14y ago

Is your friend renting in Cupertino? That place has some other dynamics, such as excellent school district, so families compete price-wise to get there.

greggman 14y ago

I can verify that most apartments have a line. I visited one a half hour after there open house started. The realtor at the entrance said they already had 20 applications and 7 deposit checks so they didn't need mine but that I could look at the apartment if I wanted. It wasn't a good apartment IMO. 14th and Dolores That said, people do manage to find apartments. But yes, they are over priced. You can live in SF without a car so I suppose compared to most cities you could add the cost of a car minus the cost of public transportation to your rent.

benkay 14y ago

My "family" of roommates pays $1625 for a 1,408 ft2 3-br (from the 1880s) in Goose Hollow, one of the residential neighborhoods in downtown Portland. Gas can runs as high as ~150/mo in the winter, but that's not a bad deal for being able to: - chain bikes to the front porch without fear of theft (indefinitely). - leave our back door unlocked every day, and the front door most as well. - walk to some of the best coffee shops in the best coffee town in America (Public Domain, for instance). - walk to Powell's. - walk to network with ANY tech company in the downtown area. - eat amazing food for at most (95th percentile) 20 bucks/entree. - order fancy cocktails for ~9/ea. - order amazing beers for 4.50/pt. (max). - meet brilliant people (MBar's a good place to start). - breathe clean air. - not have to live in samey-samey suburban hell. - surround yourself with nature, wander through the nation's largest in-city park and visit natural wonders like the Columbia Gorge and Mt. Hood. The benefits are not completely enumerable online. Build your dream life here!

ryguytilidie 14y ago

"Landlords are reluctant to negotiate mainly because the next person in line is a Googler who will pay $1000/month above the asking price without thinking twice." I actually lived in 388 Beale, right by the Google towers. My rent went up exactly $1,000/month when Google started renting units at insane prices for their interns/traveling employees. So yeah, pretty familiar with this and this is why I no longer live in SF. Also, it really feels like shit to get pushed out of your apartment so some sales exec at Google can stay there once a week. Yay efficiency?

jseliger 14y ago

>Then a few months ago i shared a hostel room in Edinburgh with a guy from Portland. When we got to talking he told me that he is originally from San Francisco but decided to ran away to Portland to escape nearly insane cost of living. This article: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_71.htm http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_71.htm appeared on HN the other day and explains why and how California as a whole is losing native-born residents; housing costs are a huge component of the problem.

akurilin 14y ago

It's pretty normal, I've seen crowds of 10-15 people at each apartment in the city when I was looking for one myself. 3k/mo for a 1 bedroom is absolutely normal outside the sketchier areas at this point. These days the startup crowd who can't afford those prices and doesn't "know a guy" lives outside the city in places like Daly City, Oakland etc.