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Comment by cantankerous | Hacker News Reader

I used to have dreams of moving out to the valley after I finished school, but after checking, rechecking, and then rechecking again the cost of living out there, I pretty much scrapped the idea. The Bay Area may be a cool place to live, but it's not a 250% housing-cost-increase cool to me. Moreover, the pay doesn't match that housing increase. Forget it. For that price I'll wait for somebody to offer a telecommuting position, move out to me (it's not SO BAD in Missouri), or move someplace less psycho crazy on the housing.

This story drives me crazy because the market is essentially in the favor of the engineers, but it feels to me like the big tech influencers are trying to tilt it back in their favor by shaping policy and changing the game.

Pro tip: If you bring in foreign engineers and pay them peanuts, they're not going to be able to live in the Bay Area much less want to.

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You will be renting, not buying. This means that they monthly housing cost differential will be more than made up for in the salary differential. The sad fact is that if you are not in the top slice of a particular subfield you are not going to be getting telecommuting options unless you get very lucky: by being in Missouri you both limit your opportunity to find the lucky break and limit your ability to get into the social/work networks that serve to bestow the "this guy rocks" credential. Your only option is probably to be a major contributor on a well-known open source project; this is not a bad thing to do in general, but you are limiting your options significantly. If you deign to lower your standard of living slightly for a short period of time you will be able to take a real chance at getting the opportunities you are looking for. You can always leave after doing a few years in the bay area.

You can't win if you don't play. If you are waiting on the sidelines for some magic opportunity to fall into your lap you are going to be waiting a very long time.

>You will be renting, not buying.

Exactly why the OP won't choose to move there. Why should he have to pay someone the privilege of living, and get none of that money back when/if they decide to leave? At least when you buy you get some equity.

Because renting is more flexible and often less expensive...

Imagine you loose your job in a crisis, you have to move/sell your house in a crashing market.

If you lose your job in a crisis, you also won't be able to pay your rent and you'll move/sublet your apartment. Losing your job pretty much screws you however you decide to live.

> Pro tip: If you bring in foreign engineers and pay them peanuts, they're not going to be able to live in the Bay Area much less want to.

The article said that they pay foreign engineers more on average than local ones.

> 250% housing-cost-increase cool to me

250%? What city are you comparing to? Are you perhaps comparing to a large town?

Here you go:

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

Enter St. Louis, MO and San Francisco, CA. Housing is 276% more expensive. Columbia? 252%. Kansas City? 215%. You get the idea.

Also, just for fun, try some other "large towns":

Dallas, TX: 276% Columbus, OH: 268% Austin, TX: 245% Jacksonville, FL: 242% Phoenix, AZ: 225% Atlanta, GA: 217%

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