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It is certainly not the case that you need $300k a year to afford a $1M house. $800k for a thirty year term on 3.5% gives you around $3k/mo payments. That could

It is certainly not the case that you need $300k a year to afford a $1M house. $800k for a thirty year term on 3.5% gives you around $3k/mo payments. That could be reasonably carried by someone making $120k after taxes (1/3rd net income rule). That said, for a lifetime home in this market you might need a little more than $1M, depending on what you're looking for and where you'd want to live. I don't think we actually disagree about anything. Except the weather (^_^ I couldn't bear it). Houston vs. SF is a tradeoff. We'd need more data to know exactly where it crosses over for each person.

nilkn 13y ago
Yeah, I totally get why someone would go to the Bay Area. For me there were some particular reasons to stay in Houston. (1) I didn't want to leave my girlfriend behind; she couldn't have easily followed me if I had left at the time. (2) I really like the company I work for; amazing people, unique problems. I lucked out in this regard; the biggest problem with Houston for developers is not the weather but finding a cool place to work. :P It's really a city for chemical engineers, not software engineers. A lot of people here end up at Schlumberger or doing contracting for the oil and gas industry, which is decidedly not sexy. But it can pay well--there's an unfathomable amount of money flowing through the oil companies here. Not my cup of tea though.
- saryant 13y ago
  There are a few good companies in Houston outside the energy industry. FlightAware is probably at the top of the list. That said, there are huge software engineering challenges within oil. The work environment isn't what most here are comfortable with (especially Exxon and their accountability system shudder) but Houston's industries offer some extraordinary challenges for the taking. The largest medical center in the world as well as a growing financial industry offer a lot of opportunities in Big Data. I would've stayed in Houston but I decided San Antonio had a more interesting startup ecosystem (Austin's not my cup of tea). Having TechStars and Geekdom here has really heated things up in past years.
- deleted 13y ago
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nilkn 13y ago

Yeah, I totally get why someone would go to the Bay Area. For me there were some particular reasons to stay in Houston. (1) I didn't want to leave my girlfriend behind; she couldn't have easily followed me if I had left at the time. (2) I really like the company I work for; amazing people, unique problems. I lucked out in this regard; the biggest problem with Houston for developers is not the weather but finding a cool place to work. :P It's really a city for chemical engineers, not software engineers. A lot of people here end up at Schlumberger or doing contracting for the oil and gas industry, which is decidedly not sexy. But it can pay well--there's an unfathomable amount of money flowing through the oil companies here. Not my cup of tea though.

saryant 13y ago
There are a few good companies in Houston outside the energy industry. FlightAware is probably at the top of the list. That said, there are huge software engineering challenges within oil. The work environment isn't what most here are comfortable with (especially Exxon and their accountability system shudder) but Houston's industries offer some extraordinary challenges for the taking. The largest medical center in the world as well as a growing financial industry offer a lot of opportunities in Big Data. I would've stayed in Houston but I decided San Antonio had a more interesting startup ecosystem (Austin's not my cup of tea). Having TechStars and Geekdom here has really heated things up in past years.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]