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iOS Geek

macrumors 68000
Nov 7, 2017
1,621
3,363
If you can find any other place that will pay you anywhere near as well...

The key to Silicon Valley is too live well below ones means (think ramen and sleeping on couches), until one can save enough cash from that 6 figure starting salary to move far away and buy that big house on 10 acres in some other state (not CA). I know several engineers who did well on that plan. But that lifestyle choice is certainly not for everybody.
The thing is though...It doesn't have to pay near as well. It's less about the amount you are paid...and more about the cost of living. If I left Illinois and took a job in Florida doing the same thing I'm doing in Illinois...I'd take a pretty decent pay cut in the process. But the cost of living in Florida...is much less than where I am now. Despite making less money in Florida, I could probably live my life even better there than I do in Illinois, simply because Illinois taxes the crap out of everything. My dollar would get me farther in Florida than it will in Illinois. I make $120k a year in Illinois. If I did the same job in Florida...I would be making $87k. When taxes are all said and done...$87k in Florida would probably get me farther than $120k in Illinois.
 

citysnaps

macrumors G4
Oct 10, 2011
11,873
25,781
Having grown up in the Bay Area and having a career in silicon valley (three companies in Sunnyvale and then Palo Alto), I have zero regrets. There is so much opportunity.

Cost of living, buying a home, etc, has always been higher than other areas. But to me it has been worth it. There's so much to do without having to drive too far. And that's just one of many reasons why I'm still here.
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,824
6,878
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I’ve seen a LOT of “affordable housing” projects here in Toronto. Affordability alone should not be enough. Nobody wants to live in a shanty town, so let’s hope these housing projects are modern living design residences that don’t scream slumville.

affordable housing should not shame those that require such dwellings.
 
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Smearbrick

macrumors 6502
Jan 12, 2013
415
799
Central PA
It's called good will. Tech companies are absolutely loathed by long-time locals in the Bay Area for what they've done to the housing market.
Nothing is done just for the sake of good will; not in the corporate world. If you were to dig, I’m sure there’s a financial incentive there, some other ancillary benefit. Corporations rarely have altruist motivations.
 
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rlhamil

macrumors regular
Feb 6, 2010
248
190
I hear they are scouting for real estate in Guyana, and are working on developing new flavors of kool aid.

Cult or socialism, even corporate sponsored socialism, will either kill outright or one brain cell at a time. Losers should either stop being losers, or be left to the tender mercies of either voluntary charity, or Darwin; those who find the latter lacking in compassion are welcome to step up with their own time and resources.
 
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QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Mar 20, 2003
12,028
6,036
Bay Area
The frustrating thing about being a Bay Area resident is knowing how wealthy I would be anywhere else. When I tell people from other states what I make, they assume I must own a huge house and drive a Maserati. But I’m actually a renter barely getting by.
Yup. The cost of my commute (gas + bridge tolls + parking) is more than rent in most parts of the country. The cost of daycare is more than rent in most other major cities. It’s madness

And of course we have a 10% state income tax...
 
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CarlJ

macrumors 604
Feb 23, 2004
6,971
12,134
San Diego, CA, USA
Parents had a friend who purchased a nice 3 story townhouse on Lake Street, San Fransisco in the 1960's for $10k. I wonder what it's worth today?
I remember a notion back in the 90's that one could likely pay off the entire national debt if one sold off the land that the military owned in San Francisco.
 
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Ronlap

macrumors 6502
Sep 7, 2007
269
202
San Francisco Bay Area
In San Francisco, the world’s most expensive place for construction, a two-bedroom apartment of what passes for affordable housing costs around $750,000 just to build. Not taking into account the price of land, around one quarter of the cost of building affordable housing goes to government fees, permits and consulting companies, according to a 2014 study by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Let's do the math, shall we?
 
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PC_tech

Suspended
Jan 17, 2019
933
915
Thank you for clearly demonstrating the plural of “anecdote” is not “facts.”

Glad to see Apple recognizes how the standard of living affects their operations within the communities they locate. I wish more companies would acknowledge that their presence affects communities both positively and negatively then make the effort to mitigate the negative. In the end it is even good for the bottom line, a real win-win.
He never said it was a fact?
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It's hard to believe Apple is doing this out of the kindness of their hearts... does anyone know if there is some subversion here for Apple to heavily profit from this?
They aren’t, there’s got to be an incentive.
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It's called good will. Tech companies are absolutely loathed by long-time locals in the Bay Area for what they've done to the housing market.
Apple isn’t giving billions out of good will.
 
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Rojaaemon

macrumors 6502
Aug 27, 2016
293
449
It's not that "affordable housing" needs building, it's that housing regulations, restrictions, and tax codes need liberalizing to allow housing to do what comes naturally in a free market.
 

Apple2GS

macrumors 6502
Jul 31, 2016
315
538
US of A
Any studies showing what would happen if Apple, Google, and Amazon moved to more affordable states? Might solve the housing problems.
 

myrtlebee

macrumors 68030
Jul 9, 2011
2,677
2,242
Maryland
That building is absolutely hideous. Today's aesthetics will not age gracefully. Things like this will become dated very quickly.
 

QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Mar 20, 2003
12,028
6,036
Bay Area
They’d have to convince people to move to those states. Might be a difficult ask.
Depends on which/how many companies moved and to where, exactly. A lot of Bay Area residents are pretty eager to leave but have jobs that keep them here. If a bunch of the big tech companies created a Silicon Valley 2.0 somewhere a lot cheaper, a lot of people would jump at that.
 
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cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,471
California
Depends on which/how many companies moved and to where, exactly. A lot of Bay Area residents are pretty eager to leave but have jobs that keep them here. If a bunch of the big tech companies created a Silicon Valley 2.0 somewhere a lot cheaper, a lot of people would jump at that.

Who are these “lot of Bay Area residents” who are “eager to leave?” I’ve not met them. I do, however, know lots of people who may reluctantly have to leave to have a better quality of life (less traffic, cheaper rent, whatever)
 

Gasu E.

macrumors 603
Mar 20, 2004
5,033
3,150
Not far from Boston, MA.
Note that Apple is *loaning* the money and acting as a bank. According to the request for proposals, the loan term is 20 years with a 2% interest rate and a $10M maximum loan. That's not a lot of funds for a project (a 50-unit affordable housing project where I live costs about $18M to build), but it could be enough to get small projects that are are ready to go off the ground.

Building projects can have multiple funding sources.
 

rodriguise

macrumors regular
May 6, 2011
135
45
Sparks, NV
Yes. Evil Apple makes it a little easier for its employees to afford to live here.

They are so evil.
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Of course you wouldn’t likely be earning what you now earn anywhere else?

That’s not entirely true. The cost of living is vastly disproportionate but income is not, in many areas engineers can be paid well because of considerably lower taxes and lower cost of business all around. For example I’m in northern Nevada and I can pay employees decently because my office space is about $1.6/sqft, utilities included. My payroll taxes are literally zero, medical insurance is cheaper, etc. But my income is on par with what it was in the Bay Area.
 

robinp

macrumors 6502a
Feb 1, 2008
750
1,794
of course there has to be an american flag :D :D :D
[automerge]1583435582[/automerge]
Its actually quite pretty. In Europe these types of buildings are fairly common so get used to it. :)

Erm, last time I checked I was an Architect in London, UK.

Thanks though for assuming I'm some kind of uneducated red-neck.

And no, that is not a pretty building. It is one of the ugliest multi-home buildings I have seen. It is clunky, inelegant, terrible choices of colour and with very little active street frontage. It is awful.
 

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,471
California
That’s not entirely true. The cost of living is vastly disproportionate but income is not, in many areas engineers can be paid well because of considerably lower taxes and lower cost of business all around. For example I’m in northern Nevada and I can pay employees decently because my office space is about $1.6/sqft, utilities included. My payroll taxes are literally zero, medical insurance is cheaper, etc. But my income is on par with what it was in the Bay Area.

Sure, some people can get even. But the opportunity for massive income is pretty high in Silicon Valley - between revenue sharing, stock options, bonuses, etc - most engineers make a lot more than their salaries here.
 

fhopper

macrumors regular
Sep 18, 2007
241
112
Ks.
When I was young they were called Projects and they became cesspools of crime. "Affordable Housing" never works, people need to be vested in what they have and that takes work. Free housing is a crime to what ever area it is placed in. Mothballed military bases should be used to house homeless, then "working Poor" neighborhoods could attempt to become safer.
 

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,471
California
When I was young they were called Projects and they became cesspools of crime. "Affordable Housing" never works, people need to be vested in what they have and that takes work. Free housing is a crime to what ever area it is placed in. Mothballed military bases should be used to house homeless, then "working Poor" neighborhoods could attempt to become safer.

Just, wow.

First, affordable housing often works. Second, this is not free housing. Third, this is very different than the “projects.” In Silicon Valley, a 1000-square foot house on a 6000 square foot lot can cost more than a million dollars. The house next door to me is 800-square feet, completely run down, and zillow has it at $900k. I haven’t had to rent in years, but back when I did, my 600-square foot apartment was more than $2000 a month, and by now I’m sure it’s a lot more.

So when they say “affordable housing,” they mean housing that a family with an income of, say, $150k a year can afford, not housing that is free.
 
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