
House-Hunting in Silicon Valley - Stratoscope
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/27/silicon-valley-tech-wealth-real-estate
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opportune
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.

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apsec112
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.

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jakobegger
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?

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baoha
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,...)

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throw03172019
Are these multi-millionaires really that intrigued by flamenco dancers and
baristas at an open house? This seems so cheesy to me.

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duado
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.

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throw03172019
Curious why you chose C++?

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

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JetSpiegel
More like PHP, which explains a lot...

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gumby
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.

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jdavis703
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?

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pembrook
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.

