House-Hunting in Silicon Valley | Hacker News Reader

House-Hunting in Silicon Valley

theguardian.com

23 pointsStratoscope17 comments

I don't understand the dig at Mayer. Seems like more nimby bullshit that she shouldn't be able to throw a party at her own house. I doubt the generator is loud enough for her rich neighbors to hear in their bedrooms.

Also, this is the reality bay area voters chose. Perhaps the greatest, fastest transfer of wealth to lucky property owners in human history.

The article talks about expensive housing but doesn't mention restrictive zoning, presumably so all the blame can be put on "tech". There are lots of rich people in Houston, including thirteen billionaires, but houses don't cost $1 million because Houston has no density limits.

I don't understand why people bother to commute for two hours just to serve wealthy tech workers. Is there really such a lack of opportunities that people have to work in places they can't afford to live in?

And even if you can afford to live there, why would anybody raise their kids in a place that's so expensive that the kids are almost guaranteed not to be able to afford to live in once they grow up?

If FAANG market caps keep being flat like last year, I would say the situation will become stable, not exploding like the last 5 year where those stocks have gone up 4-5 times.

Only married couple who both work in tech can afford buying a home, and major of them still need to send kids to private schools because only a handful of cities have good public schools, and these cities are extremely expensive (Palo Alto, Los Altos,...)

Are these multi-millionaires really that intrigued by flamenco dancers and baristas at an open house? This seems so cheesy to me.

I have a rule of thumb. If there's flamenco dancers in the kitchen of a show home, it's probably over priced.

These multi-millionaires arent exactly discussing Kierkegaard over port wine... they’re C++ wizards who are buying 7 bedroom houses when they only have 2 kids. Of course they go nuts for this cheesy shit.

Curious why you chose C++?

Most of the top earners in Silicon Valley are at FAANG companies which I assume are more C++ shops than Node startups.

More like PHP, which explains a lot...

Deleon is an ostentatious jerk so no surprise he features in such an article. He moved up to Palo Alto from Southern California and brought some of that culture with him.

I don’t understand why techies are being blamed for this. I make what I believe to be industry median for a software engineer with 6 years experience. Let’s say I saved enough ($200k) for a 20% down payment on a million dollar house. The bank still wouldn’t qualify me for the monthly payments. Who are these techies who are easily saving for these massive down payments and high monthly mortgages?

Married couples.

Dual income helps

Total comp at FAANG and a few other big tech names well exceeds the industry median.

Anecdotally, of all the people I know who own in the Bay Area, it’s always a couple where both work in Big Tech.

For these couples, a household income of $400k is standard. That’s your answer.

If you and a spouse made a combined $400k/year (two people in software with 3-8 years experience) you could afford it.

I think the rationale is that if tech workers weren't so prevalent in the Bay Area or didn't make so much money, then these houses would sit empty long enough for the owners to reduce the price. That, and probably just a broader desire among many media outlets to depict tech as the Big Bad (TM). Chronic lack of supply and tax policy that incentivizes holding onto one's home for as long as possible isn't as compelling a headline.

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