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Rent is so high in San Francisco that Im a engineer and I live in a van
invite response
2015 Oct 17, 10:28am 25,575 views 53 comments
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zzyzzx
2015 Oct 26, 9:02am
That's my point. The enjoyment is more important than the snob factor.
I agree with this. It was just something to do after visiting someplace in Baltimore City that took less time to complete when I had expected. I.E. - filler material, even though the winery was better than the other place we had visited earlier in the day.
Even more bad news
SFBA's new job vs new construction ratio is 9.4. Even if jobs gorwth cut in half, it is still slightly favorable.
Morgan Stanley on San Francisco rents: It'll take 'more than a mild slowdown' for rents to drop
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Morgan-Stanley-on-San-Francisco-rents-It-ll...
While the tech sector may be slowing down, that won't stop the surge in Bay Area rents.
In a note to clients on Friday, Morgan Stanley analyst Vance Edelson said, "it will take more than a mild slowdown in tech activity to break down favorable supply demand fundamentals in the Bay Area."
That's favorable to homeowners and landlords, not renters or new buyers.
And, the kicker: "We think supply/demand would remain favorable even if current Bay Area job growth forecasts were cut in half." (Emphasis ours.)
The Bay Area's rent growth is a direct result of a shortage of housing to match the (largely tech-driven) increase in jobs, Morgan Stanley wrote. Looking at construction data, the new apartment supply is expected to increase by only 15,000 units in 2016-2017, they said.
Right now, the forecasts point to 145,000 new jobs in the Bay Area. 145,000 new jobs versus 15,000 new units is a ratio of 9.4x. That's terrible if you're hoping rents will drop.
Morgan Stanley calculated that in low home-ownership markets, like the Bay Area, a traditional ratio is four jobs for every apartment, or a 4x ratio. At that ratio, the market is in something like equilibrium.
In 2015, the job/supply ratio was 8.9x, according to the note.
So it's getting worse, not better.
The wild card is what happens to tech job growth. If the tech sector slows, there could be fewer than 145,000 new jobs created.
But there needs to be "more than a mild slowdown" for rents to drop — even if the estimate of new jobs is cut in half, the market will remain favorable to owners:
Morgan stanley
Even more bad news
SFBA's new job vs new construction ratio is 9.4. Even if jobs gorwth cut in half, it is still slightly favorable.
Morgan Stanley on San Francisco rents: It'll take 'more than a mild slowdown' for rents to drop
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Morgan-Stanley-on-San-Francisco-rents-It-ll...
Morgan Stanley went bankrupt in 2008 spouting the same bullshit and got bailed out by the Fed. At least they are not as evil as GS and actually (partially) believe the shit they spout while GS actively trades against their client recommendations (suckers! muppets!).. This time is different! ;)
zzyzzx
2015 Oct 27, 10:45am
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/21/googlers-living-at-google-tiny-spaces-probably-no-sex.html
Ben Discoe, former UI programmer. Lived at Google from October 2011 to November 2012.
Ben, the longest-dwelling Googler that we know about, was caught between alimony and payments on a farm in Hawaii. He bought a 1990 GMC Vandura van for $1,800. Discoe says the van had been modified by a "burner," which is a polite term for someone who attends Burning Man. He lived in the van for over a year. And in case you thought Google's security team was slacking off, Discoe says they were onto him from relatively early on: "Once they determined that the guy in the mysteriously parked white van was just an eccentric Googler and not the Unabomber, they never came by again."
Matthew J. Weaver, former ecologist. Lived at Google from July 2005 to August 2006.
Matthew says he lived in an RV near the US-101N onramp on a dare for 54 weeks, throwing parties and generally having a good time. This was before smartphones became a thing (and wireless Internet wasn't available where he was), so we can only assume he read a lot and thought deeply about why he was living in an RV at the office complex where he worked.
Brandon Oxendine, former designer. Lived at Google from June 28 to September 22, 2013.
Brandon lived in a subterranean parking garage in a Volvo station wagon that sported an Ikea twin mattress in the back and blacked-out windows. He then moved in with a friend in San Francisco's Mission District, where he presumably saw sunlight.
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http://qz.com/524138/rent-is-so-high-in-san-francisco-that-im-a-software-engineer-and-i-live-in-a-van/
Rent is so high in San Francisco that I’m a software engineer and I live in a van
About a year ago, I was having lunch with a friend when I made a throwaway comment: “Have you seen the rent in San Francisco? If I get a job in the Bay Area, I’ll totally live in a van.â€
As I sit in darkness writing this, I’m trying to keep my typing quiet, lest a real inhabitant of the neighborhood I’m parked in should walk by and wonder about the sounds coming from the rusty bus loitering on their block. Yes, you understood that correctly: Today, I work in a multi-million dollar office complex, and I live in a van.
This summer, after receiving a job offer in Silicon Valley, I went on Craigslist and began sifting through housing listings: “verrrrrryyy cheap bedroom ;),†“great deal on rent!†A single room with a shared bathroom? Two thousand per month on the low-end. A small studio apartment, you ask? If your startup wasn’t recently bought for seven figures, forget about it.
I perked up after finding a listing for $1,000 per month. Now this could work. Clicking through to the details section however revealed the offer was for a single bunk in a room with eight people, a set-up referred to as a “hacker house†by an (evil) marketing genius.
Even if I was to spend the huge majority of my salary on rent, I knew I would likely still be in a grim living situation, resenting every penny I handed over that could have gone towards paying back my student loans. And as a software engineer, I’m one of the lucky ones! Imagine those who aren’t lucky enough to be on the tech payroll.
Anyway, three weeks ago I took the equivalent of three months’ rent and bought an old red bus. It’s a 1969 VW camper van with a hole in the floor and a family of spiders that has more of a right to be here than I do (sleeping in your car on public land in California is illegal).
But with the help of Ikea and an army of cleaning supplies I was able to get the bus into livable condition.
From certain angles, it even passes for a tiny, $1,000-per-month bedroom.
Overall, I’m proud of the way my project turned out. But of course this living situation wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t already have a job that feeds me and allows me to shower and do laundry at work. I also have a network of friends who are ready to step in should a crisis emerge and offer me a temporary bed. And I am a young, white woman, which gives me the immense privilege of pulling up a creepy van and parking it without being harassed. People don’t report me; neither do they assume I’m a vagrant. They smile and ask if I need anything.
There are many people who are forced to live in their cars because they really cannot afford to live in the Bay Area. I am not technically one of them, and in doing this by choice I am inevitably appropriating their hardships. However, I am also saving hard, trying to pay off my debts, and learning a few invaluable life skills—like carpentry and how to be a fairly competent mechanic—in the process. Also, I get to flood social media with updates that basically equate to “Ha. Told you I’d do it. Look at me now. I’m in a bus. You’re going to have to pay up on the $5 bet you made that I would never go through with it.â€
Article does have pictures.