Comment by kenny_bania | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kenny_bania | Hacker News Reader

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I'm from Seattle and have zero sympathy for these people and their manufactured outrage. What the article fails to tell you is the housing market here is so insane they were probably in a bidding war with 50 other couples, which would happen even if the property was a dilapidated hovel with no internet and a family of bowtie-wearing rats living in the crawl space. People are plunking down $1M+ and waiving inspection. Madness. So adequate Comcast service probably falls lower on the list than other questions such as "will the roof cave in on us?" Beggars can't be choosers after all.

That said, there are plenty of options. Seattle has pretty reliable 5G coverage through T-Mobile who will sell you home internet now. CenturyLink fiber in some neighborhoods. Starlink. Yes the landline internet situation here is abysmal - parts of West Seattle are still on 512K DSL last I recall, but the point is you have options. Comcast isn't the only game in town anymore (and in fact is not the lone cable provider in all city neighborhoods).

Stop whining and climb up on the roof and mount an LTE antenna like people in rural communities do. Just hope your foot doesn't go through because the wood's probably all rotted in that mid-century bungalow you just spent $950k on. Comcast bad, whatever. I can't believe I'm taking their side on this.

I understand how frustrating the Seattle housing market can be, but how is any of that the ~seller’s~ buyer’s fault? Your unempathetic rant is directed at someone also suffering the consequences of this market.

This house was purchased last year, prior to the most recent frenzy and no they didn’t spend anywhere near a mil on it, nor is it dilapidated. It’s actually easy to identify in Zillow if you bother to look.

Edit: seller’s -> buyer’s

> but how is any of that the seller’s fault?

I never said it was. It's the buyer's fault. Caveat emptor.

They have choices. They could have purchased a home in the suburbs but chose to purchase within the Seattle city limits, where the homes and neighborhoods are much older and the infrastructure is dilapidated. The home almost assuredly has no air conditioning, and depending on the year it was built, the electrical is probably outdated as well. Bonus points if it has a buried heating oil tank in the front yard, which a lot of homes in Northgate do, which they'd have to remedy and do an environmental cleanup for.

The article seems to indicate they are WFH tech employees who do "six hours of [Zoom] calls a day" so they could have lived literally anywhere in the metro area. Buying in this neighborhood was a lifestyle choice. They chose to live closer to "city fun" in exchange for shitty internet. I live in the sticks. My neighbors work for Google. We both have gigabit-class internet. We compromised; driving into the city with traffic sucks beyond comprehension.

Entitlement to Comcast internet is pretty low on the list of concerns if you're insisting on buying in that neighborhood.

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