Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Cheaper rent is relative.

I invite you to pick any major city, particularly one on the west coast with a population over 500K for their metro area who's name you recognize from any news or professional setting.

Look up the rents in the downtown area. Then look at a traffic map for around rush hour in the morning / evening; the worst part of that period. Take a sample of suburbs an hour, maybe even two hours out to form some rings.

The price of rent goes down a little, but the price in fuel and taxation on a commuter doesn't. MOST of these cities also, if they even have it, will have mass transit optimized to a mega-downtown hub with spokes, for peek commuters only. Even that will still suck about as much as traffic, but costs less.

Pre-pandemic, when I last looked at numbers, Seattle wanted around 3000+ a month for like a single room apartment, maybe a bit less if it was a really crummy place. A rundown suburb an hour or so out cost about half of that for a little more, or for a tiny bit less you could rent a house, including a covered garage.



Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: