

Ask HN: How much more expensive is it to live in Silicon Valley? - shawndumas

I live in Boca Raton, FL now and am contemplating a move to the Santa Clara Valley. All the cost-of-living calculators are assuming that I am going to rent a posh place right in the valley and so I feel like I cannot trust their percentage difference.<p>I mean, if I lived in Nebraska and was contemplating a job in Boca I would freak at the average rent in the area. But having lived here I know that Delray represents a huge cost savings and a 10 min commute.<p>Can I trust these cost-of-living calculators?
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rpedela
Having just moved to CO after living in Silicon Valley for 3-4 years, here is
my cost experience. Most things are about the same price as everywhere else
(food, clothes, etc). However two things are not: taxes and housing. If you
are single, the only way to get a nice apartment at a reasonable price is to
live with roommates. If you have a family, you will be living in an
apartment/condo/small house unless you are super rich or you buy a house so
far away that your commute sucks. However salaries are usually $100K+ for
good, experienced engineers. There is a lot of low-income housing too which
may be helpful if you qualify, and it is usually mixed in with nice housing so
we are not talking the ghetto.

The above is true for most of the Bay Area, not just Silicon Valley, unless
you are willing to live in bad neighbourhoods.

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650REDHAIR
It is expensive to live in SV.

Check sfbay.craigslist.org to see what apartments are going for.

If you live in the Valley you're going to spend quite a bit of money (and
time) commuting anywhere useful. If you live in SF your rent will be higher,
but lower transportation costs.

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dirktheman
A lot of places on CL advertise with 'section 8 OK'. I'm from The Netherlands,
where we have a vaguely similar program. Some neighbourhoods are okay, some
not so. How is this in Silicon Valley?

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jf22
Read this before you consider renting in Section 8 neighborhoods:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/american...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/american-
murder-mystery/306872/)

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gatsby
"Can I trust these cost-of-living calculators?" I wouldn't.

As people have already mentioned, taxes and housing will likely be your
largest increased expenses when compared to an area like Boca Raton. I would
go onto some home-search sites and start looking around at actual places for
rent. You'll quickly get an idea of exactly what you would be paying if you
moved out today. To give you a general idea, lots of very non-posh 3 bedroom,
2 bath single family homes in Santa Clara go for $3-5k/month. However, that
number can differ wildly by moving even a few blocks in any direction.

Feel free to email me if you want to discuss specific areas further.

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shawndumas
very cool; thx

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tutufan
If you have a family and are thinking of living in a house, you are in for a
world of hurt. Houses are for people who have already gone through an IPO and
gotten lucky.

I recently had an offer from a well-known SV company. It seemed really good,
and was maybe 80% more than I was making in the sticks. But I also have a
family, and in my case want to put the kids in reasonable public schools.
After long study, I realized that this just wasn't possible, even on the
generous salary.

Some people say that the Bay Area is simply full. For people with families,
that might almost be true. Certainly it's a major challenge. Good luck!

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muzz
> having lived here I know that Delray represents a huge cost savings and a 10
> min commute.

If you work in Palo Alto or Mountain View, you can live in Santa Clara or San
Jose and significantly lower cost. Additional commute is 10-30 minutes

If you work in SF you can live in Oakland or most of the East Bay (think El
Cerrito, San Leandro, Hayward, etc)

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markhall
I now live in Palo Alto. Being from Broward County (45 min from Boca), I can
definitely relate to your concern. There is a significant difference in cost
of living between So. Fla and here, often beyond what's visible on 'cost
calculators'. Use multiple data points and average things out. If you have any
specific questions, ping me at my email in my profile.

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shawndumas
helpful; thanks

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hkarthik
If you are single, you can probably live there with minimal life adjustments.
The rule of thumb with housing is that you spend twice as much for half as
much space as compared to most parts of the country.

If you have a family with school age kids, the situation is far worse as the
family friendly housing costs are closer to 3x-4x compared to other areas.

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shawndumas
We home-school...

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hkarthik
That helps a little. A good school district would mean paying 3x more for
housing. A bad one means paying 2x. Either way it's going to be a small place.

I'd recommend looking at Sunnyvale if you want something reasonable and
schools don't matter.

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shawndumas
Also: I know the state sales/income tax is higher; that's a fixed cost that's
easy to calculate.

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gamechangr
Yes. (disclaimer I don't live there, but have been a number of times)

Highest cost of living in the country in my opinion. There are ways to beat
the system, but half the population are looking for those exceptions.

