Would you move to San Fran area if offered a job that pays 50k more?
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Anonymous
Many of them bought their homes long before the current run up in housing prices. The Bay Area has a very skewed housing market. It's difficult to move there now without a big salary. Op has an advantage in that they don't have kids yet, so that means they don't have to worry about schools and don't need a big place. |
Anonymous
I am moving out of the bay area now. Most of my friends make less than 500k HHI. Many make less than we do. We cannot afford to buy here in a decent area. All of my friends bought when the market was much lower. Cupertino has like zero in common with SF, you are talking suburbs. Endless suburbs. Some have cute little downtowns (mine does) but it isn't like living in the city. I have friends who are trying desperately to renovate or add on, or even get a rotten deck removed and replaced, and it is very, very hard to find a contractor now. One of my friends wants to add a bathroom and redo her kitchen, and it will cost more than they paid for their house to begin with! The prices are so high now that the property taxes are significant on homes. When you have to pay 1.6 million then you are talking 11k per year in property taxes. OP, it is very difficult to find rental houses if you are not here now. There is a housing shortage. If you have any pets, it is even more difficult. The rental market is very competitive (like the real estate market) and many places get listed and have 20-40 applicants within the first 24 hours. Be sure to negotiate temporary housing and, if you can, a housing subsidy for the first two years. I have known people who were able to get those things. FOR SURE you want to the temporary housing. You will really have to be HERE to rent something, unless you are going with a giant apartment complex where you are renting sight unseen. You also may think that you are going to get a great unit for the premium price you will pay - ha ha. Maybe. When we rented sight unseen, we had carpet that should have been replaced. We gave notice on our apartment, and it was already taken before I even saw it get listed on their website as available. My neighbors moved to a new place a month ago, and the unit was turned over to a new family within 3 days. Just for reference, we are in a safe area on the peninsula, pets are allowed, we have a one car garage and a parking spot, 2/2, and we were paying $3650/mo. 960 sq ft. There is no rent control in most towns (SF has some rent controlled units). A several hundred dollar/mo increase each year is not surprising. Just make a real plan for housing. Housing is the hard part. This is a beautiful area and people are very nice, but traffic is horrendous. |
Anonymous
Op here. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. |
Anonymous
Oh for Pete's sake. Stop making things up. |
Anonymous
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OP, DC is filled with risk-adverse bureaucrats and people who sell, lobby, or do work for those bureaucrats. You are not going to get a representative sample of people here when you ask. I am not sure there is a more risk-adverse message board on the planet.
If you are looking at a job at Apple, and it has upward career movement, you'll make that movement much faster in CA than in DC. Yes you likely won't have as nice a house. But you'll have a great adventure and may get some career advancement. |
Anonymous
| The "asks" for the schools we have been at have been between $180/child and $500/child and $1500/family. PP is right that school PTAs and education foundations are what is funding art, music, PE, computers and foreign languages. Our district now has funding for PE but in prior years the PTA had to pay for it. I don't know about other districts. They all have this thing called "LCAP" now that determines how the districts decide what they will fund at each school. The PTAs and ed foundations raise anywhere from 100k to millions per year. PP is not wrong about these things. But you do not have to donate, it is all optional. It takes a ton of volunteer hours and $$$ to give kids these things in school. California has decided to put the burden on families of school aged kids instead of spreading the burden on all tax payers. OP doesn't have kids now but they are clearly high earners. This is a non-issue for them. They can just write the check to meet the "ask" and move on. |
Anonymous
| Silicon Valley is more comfortable if you are not living off your salary, i.e. you have options or the potential for a big bonus in the future. If this is just "a job" without much potential for massive growth or reward, I would suspect the cost of living increases out there would outpace the cost of just a 'salary job' salary increases. |
Anonymous
This doesn’t sound that bad to me. |
Anonymous
| You’re a fool if you turn down this opportunity. It will see you up for life. Same for your partner. Do it. |
Anonymous
We lived in California 7 years ago There were no art/music/language/PE/gifted teachers/strings in schools. Our PE classes were led by parent volunteers. Any art classes were led by parent volunteers. This was grade and class dependent, so one class might have art and another did not. Any art supplies were donated by parents or the PTA. They tested for GT services but if your kid qualified there were no GT services, just a letter. They only tested the kids recommended by the teachers, and that number was small. In my kid's 3rd grade (4 classes) there were only 6 kids asked to test. If your school did not have an active PTA or parents did not step up, then there was nothing extra for the kids. This was considered a "good" northern California school district. My kids attended 2 elementary schools in this district, one had active parents, the other did not. The one that did not had nothing, not even parent led weekly PE. |
Anonymous
I would have thought they'd be higher. In Atlanta, $4,000 - 4,500 for property taxes on a $450,000 home would be typical. Or $32,000 on a $2.6 million home. |
Anonymous
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Yes do it.
- lived in SF 9 years |
Anonymous
+4 Especially if you like the area or if you've always wanted to live there. It is easier to go on an adventure now. Later with kids it will be more difficult. Still do-able but harder because you have more at play. I say go for it! The extra $50k in this case isn't really so much the draw as the safety net to cover the expense and make the move pretty painless. |
Anonymous
| I have family who live in Cupertino and grew up in the area. The schools there are really good, if that’s something that concerns you. You can find affordable housing on that salary in San Jose, especially if you are okay renting a livable but definitely not updated small house. My friends and family who rent have found much better deals on houses than apartments. Just be aware of commutes. Is the job at Apple? You don’t have to say, but know that cupertino has no train stops nearby and the freeway exits back up considerably, at least on 280. I agree that Cupertino is in the middle of suburbs surrounded by suburbs, but there are some delicious Asian restaurants, solid hiking, and like a 45 minute drive to the beach. I would do it in a heartbeat, but for me, it would be a move home. I also agree without PP that if you’re in tech, it really is the best place to be. And remember no move needs to be permanent. |
Anonymous
| I'd much rather live in the Bay Area and have to live more modestly than live in SS in a 4 bedroom house. |