4
0

Tech workers flee San Francisco and rents fall, "Why do we even want to be here?"


 invite response                
2020 Aug 16, 6:20pm   854 views  20 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/remote-work-is-reshaping-san-francisco-as-tech-workers-flee-and-rents-fall

For years there’s been talk of a potential exodus from the San Francisco Bay Area, spurred by the exorbitant cost of living and long, slogging commutes. But before coronavirus, leaving the area meant walking away from some of the best-paying and most prestigious jobs in America.

There are signs the exodus is finally happening. Silicon Valley, America’s signature hub of innovation, may never be the same. ...

Two things suggested to Justin Thompson and his wife that they weren’t alone in deciding to move out of San Francisco this summer. After five years of renting an apartment, the couple had decided to buy a three-bedroom house in Phoenix.

First, their landlord offered to reduce their rent by $250 a month if they’d finish out their lease through October. (They declined.) And second, when Mr. Thompson went in for a dental checkup and said it would be his last, his dentist was unsurprised.

“He said, ‘I have people coming in almost daily telling me the same thing,’” said Mr. Thompson, who works for a data analytics firm. ...

Facebook Inc. recently said its employees could stay away for that long too. The social-media giant, which has 52,000 employees, expects to shift to a substantially remote workforce over the coming decade, and is now recruiting a director of remote work. Other companies including Twitter Inc. and Slack Technologies Inc. have declared most of their employees can work remotely for good. ...

While it’s too soon to measure the total net outflow of tech workers from the Bay Area, it’s already affecting real-estate prices. Rents have started falling for the first time in years. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco in the month of July dropped by 11% compared with the same month a year prior...

Those who are leaving the area permanently cite a variety of reasons, but high housing costs tend to be at the top of the list. Between 2009 and 2019, the median cost of a single-family home in the San Francisco Bay Area nearly tripled to around $1 million. Even renting a bunk bed in a room with five other people can cost over $1,300 a month.

Comments 1 - 20 of 20        Search these comments

1   Patrick   2020 Aug 16, 6:22pm  

Patrick says
Between 2009 and 2019, the median cost of a single-family home in the San Francisco Bay Area nearly tripled to around $1 million


That is actually false. The media for a house in the bay area overall is $687,000.
2   Ceffer   2020 Aug 16, 6:36pm  

SF housing is expensive, but the shit and needles are free. All that progressive ambiance without the amenities of recreation, entertainment, clubs and restaurants just isn't the same. Can you be a first world city with a third world socialist political structure?
3   mich   2020 Aug 16, 7:53pm  

So weird it was quiet there yesterday but mask culture is hard core there. I see people running, walking with no around and biking with it even in areas where there are not many people. Only the wacky people wear masks outside in the North Bay.
4   mell   2020 Aug 16, 8:16pm  

In a way I think it's a good thing for SF as there is finally space for a reset, similar to 2008. Sure the corrupt leftoid whackos will continue trying to run everything into the ground but useless retail and hipster doofus bullshit will close and make room for maybe nooky coffee shops again and restore some of the dreaminess SF once had with less people living there. The city will do much better with 25%-50% less people. I'd rather have hippies run the show than the current leftoid globalist marxists. Let's face it SF will likely never be a Republican city but it could back to its small government libertarian (albeit left-leaning) hippie roots. Let it reset, incl. city council.
5   mell   2020 Aug 16, 8:20pm  

mich says
So weird it was quiet there yesterday but mask culture is hard core there. I see people running, walking with no around and biking with it even in areas where there are not many people. Only the wacky people wear masks outside in the North Bay.


I always run without mask and some people jump into the street out of fear. One guy threatened to shoot us when we were taking a walk outside. Leftoids have wreaked a lot of havoc and created generations of idiocracies mixed with cultist elements. Sonoma is much better, Napa, Glen Ellen even better than Sonoma. SF is hosed until there's a reset.
6   GNL   2020 Aug 16, 9:18pm  

Patrick says
Patrick says
Between 2009 and 2019, the median cost of a single-family home in the San Francisco Bay Area nearly tripled to around $1 million


That is actually false. The media for a house in the bay area overall is $687,000.

So, in 2009, the median was only $230,000?
7   clambo   2020 Aug 16, 9:45pm  

If they can figure out a way to work remotely in California, they may be able to do it from another state with lower costs and taxes.

I can't imagine any of the millionaire employees with stock in Google, Apple, Netflix, Facebook, eBay, etc. sticking around to give another 13% to the Franchise Tax Board.

Imagine you think you're rich from your stocks and you are now looking at paying Sacramento $130,000 for the privilege of living here when you sell out and have a million capital gain?
8   Ceffer   2020 Aug 16, 10:12pm  

TrumpingTits says
But if you are a not an employee (1099), this isn't usually a problem.

In its infinite Communist wisdom, California has disallowed independent contractors and forced companies to give them hourly paid staff status. It is another business killing strategy, as if California didn't already have enough of them.
9   B.A.C.A.H.   2020 Aug 17, 8:03am  

Good riddance.
10   mell   2020 Aug 17, 4:54pm  

My original view of CA which I had before moving here and which was mostly confirmed was actually pretty positive - there is some magic to the golden state. The weather is great, the girls were cute and there was a lot of innovation. For me CA topped out when Californication by RHCP was released, followed by a brief renaissance right after the cleansing depression of 2008. For a brief moment the ugly, cancerous SJW, globalist leftoid marxist culture was put on pause. I have good memories. But the sellout of the left made CA - esp. the bay area - extremely vulnerable to shedding its free and beautiful spirit and become a leftoid corporatist crony-capitalist hellhole, and the SJWs are their useful idiots. Who knows, maybe the reset will happen if enough residents become fed up and send the leftoid globalist cronies running with pitchforks. Seen a lot of recall newsom activists lately.
11   SunnyvaleCA   2020 Aug 17, 5:44pm  

WineHorror1 says
Patrick says
Patrick says
Between 2009 and 2019, the median cost of a single-family home in the San Francisco Bay Area nearly tripled to around $1 million


That is actually false. The media for a house in the bay area overall is $687,000.

So, in 2009, the median was only $230,000?

That's a very good point, to which I say $230k must include tents and cardboard boxes.
That said, you probably could get a 60 year old SFH in East Palo Alto for $230k at the absolute bottom of the market. This "gem" sold for $305k in 2012. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1031-Newbridge-St-East-Palo-Alto-CA-94303/15582403_zpid/
12   Ceffer   2020 Aug 17, 5:49pm  

SunnyvaleCA says
That said, you probably could get a 60 year old SFH in East Palo Alto for $230k at the absolute bottom of the market. This "gem" sold for $305k in 2012. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1031-Newbridge-St-East-Palo-Alto-CA-94303/15582403_zpid/

Is that a Doberman fence, or are you just happy to see me?
15   mich   2020 Aug 17, 7:20pm  

mell says
mich says
So weird it was quiet there yesterday but mask culture is hard core there. I see people running, walking with no around and biking with it even in areas where there are not many people. Only the wacky people wear masks outside in the North Bay.


I always run without mask and some people jump into the street out of fear. One guy threatened to shoot us when we were taking a walk outside. Leftoids have wreaked a lot of havoc and created generations of idiocracies mixed with cultist elements. Sonoma is much better, Napa, Glen Ellen even better than Sonoma. SF is hosed until there's a reset.


Yeah so weird my bro in law said someone yelled at him for not wearing a mask and they're in a super quiet neighborhood. I joked thought you guys were open minded and open to critical thought.
16   RWSGFY   2020 Aug 17, 7:21pm  

SunnyvaleCA says
That's a very good point, to which I say $230k must include tents and cardboard boxes.
That said, you probably could get a 60 year old SFH in East Palo Alto for $230k at the absolute bottom of the market. This "gem" sold for $305k in 2012. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1031-Newbridge-St-East-Palo-Alto-CA-94303/15582403_zpid/


LOL @ Zestimate of $975K.
17   GNL   2020 Aug 17, 7:34pm  

SunnyvaleCA says
WineHorror1 says
Patrick says
Patrick says
Between 2009 and 2019, the median cost of a single-family home in the San Francisco Bay Area nearly tripled to around $1 million


That is actually false. The media for a house in the bay area overall is $687,000.

So, in 2009, the median was only $230,000?

That's a very good point, to which I say $230k must include tents and cardboard boxes.
That said, you probably could get a 60 year old SFH in East Palo Alto for $230k at the absolute bottom of the market. This "gem" sold for $305k in 2012. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1031-Newbridge-St-East-Palo-Alto-CA-94303/15582403_zpid/

Wait...what?!!! That's worth a cool million now? Sorry but Cali simply isn't worth it. Get the fuck out of that shithole.
19   Ceffer   2020 Aug 17, 10:31pm  

San Francisco is investing millions in technology that will make shit roll uphill rather than downhill.
20   Misc   2020 Aug 17, 10:35pm  

Ceffer says
San Francisco is investing millions in technology that will make shit roll uphill rather than downhill.


Tell that to the people who dumped 50000 gallons of shit into the bay.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/15/50k-gallons-of-raw-sewage-spilled-into-oakland-estuary-after-power-outage-affects-ebmud-wastewater-plant/#:~:text=Boaters%20are%20being%20warned%20to%20stay%20away%20from%20area&text=Boaters%20are%20being%20warned%20to%20stay%20away%20from%20the%20Oakland,treatment%20plant%20in%20West%20Oakland.

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions