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Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

Depends what your family can provide you and what your goals in life are.

If you're set to inherit properties/money from your parents or you're ok with being a renter for life at the mercy of your landlord then any salary in Europe is fine.

If you have to buy a property on your own where you could raise a family in then salaries are far from fine.

Anytime I her someone in Western Europe say salaries are fine and shrug it off, usually it's because they will receive an inheritance or significant financial assistance from parents when the time comes to buy a house so they never feel underpaid.

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you can get a mortgage credit with a really low interest rate. If you have a family, your rent probably will be higher than your mortgage payment. (5% rule) so without earning a high salary, you can still buy a house.

> You can still buy a house

Read `take a 30y mortgage` with plenty of downside risk is quite a low bar for one of the best paying industries in the world.

The disconnect between salaries and the housing market in western EU is pretty much at an all-time high. If these are the expectations for tech salaries then how about the rest of the (middle-class) workforce?

Don't know why you're being downvoted. If people would look at the property prices in German cities for example they'd get it. Unless you and your partner are very high earners you're priced out of buying anything family worthy in all cities with tech jobs.

Germany is the poster child for controlled rent working well for everybody, to the point where it is more of hassle to buy.

What are you talking about ? Are you even living in Germany? The rent prices here in Berlin are bonkers, landlords are asking 800 Euros warm for 35 sqm "flats" and they are able to get away with it because every flat in the area has at least 30+ applicants. Even if it is rent controlled and the contracts are illegal, you can not report it otherwise you get kicked and no other landlord will rent you their property. They literally ask you if you had any legal conflicts with your previous landlord and they can actually refuse your application because of this.

In my opinion, as ein verrückte britische Ausländer living in Berlin, the rent control is why so many people show up to flat viewings.

However, I think there is a lot of price variation in Berlin, and many cheap parts: I’m paying €485 for a room in a WG in Buchholz, while collecting €820 (after fees, at current exchange rates) from a flat in a quiet village 30 minutes away from Cambridge in the UK.

Sorry, I'm confused about your statement. Is your WG room in Berlin expensive and your flat in Cambridge cheap or the other way arround?

I find Berlin to be cheap.

>If these are the expectations for tech salaries then how about the rest of the (middle-class) workforce?

The expectation seems to be we will go back to a sharp division between property owners and eternal tenants, like it was when my 95 year old grandparents were kids.

The Old World still likes its Feudalism it seems.

Is it better in the US? San Fancisco / NY / Boston sound way worse despite way higher wages. I don't really hear much from people outside of those places.

You can get a nice 1BR in or close to NY for $2000 USD. Working in NY the average tech salary all in for someone with a few years of experience is $150k.

Working as a developer in the USA is way better than being a developer in Europe.

>Is it better in the US? The places you listed are probably the worse when it comes to feudalism-lite. I live in the middle of the country and the engineers I graduates with purchased property around 26-27. Our salaries are probably 75% of the bigger cities but cost of living easily makes up for that (in my opinion).

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