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Comment by FreedomToCreate | Hacker News Reader

As someone who is interviewing around the bay area for hardware engineering positions that pay between 90-110K starting (I'm from Detroit), this terrifies me if I do choose to move here. Half of my after tax salary would go to rent. I don't know if the premium is really worth the SV environment. GM and Ford pay 65K-75K starting and you can get a 1200 sq apartment in Ann Arbor, Dearborn or around Detroit for half the price of that walk in closet they call an apartment. And to anyone who says "buts its Detroit", come for a visit. The Detroit Metro area is not as bad as you think.

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3 years ago I moved away from the state capital (Adelaide, South Australia) to a 100,000-ish people city in another state (Launceston, Tasmania). Haven't looked back. I'm paying $1100 a month for a three bedroom house. I live 10 minute drive from the city centre. Work is 1.5k away (about a mile). Looking to buy a place similar to the one we're renting for around the $220,000 mark, which is three years income for me. Any place I wanted to live in Adelaide was way out of my price range.

Screw the big cities.

What do you do for work that afforded you the ability to be employed in two depressed job markets like Adelaide and Launceston?

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edit: I guess lots of people just live where they were born, or move to a bigger place for the education / work opportunities, or the lifestyle. Then there's the sea-changers and tree-changers. I think I've undergone a tree-change.

> Screw the big cities.

Adelaide is not a big city. Adelaide is a small, very affordable city. A big city is Sydney, Melbourne, Paris, London, NY, Tokyo.

Its good you have found something you like, but I have no need for so much space. Why would I, I think it is wasteful. And having to own a car, I would hate that.

It's less expensive than Sydney or Melbourne, but I'm not sure I'd call it affordable at the moment.

You got that right, the housing market is getting more expensive here all the time. I pay slightly less than you for a 1B flat down at Glenelg (though I do have a sunroom which I use for my office). Mind you, I have no need for anymore room than that; I downsized from a 4B house in Brompton which was cool but ended up getting too expensive (and getting housemates was a pain).

If the developers cannot afford housing, who can? Is the world getting awash with QE-printed money?

I'm in the Detroit area as well, and about 10 years ago I almost ended up in the SF bay area. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't. I work for one of the big 3 and while I don't make nearly what I would if I was out on the west coast, I'm comfortable financially, have a place that fits me well and -- as you know -- there's a ton of non-work-y things to do. Particularly if you like the outdoors...

I'd give a move like that serious thought, especially if you can land something decent in the area. The salary delta will more than be eaten by what you'll pay for rent. The hardest part in our area is finding comparable social stuff, but it's really not that hard... There's tons of like-minded people around.

I'm from Detroit as well, moved out here 3 years ago. I will probably move back in the next 2-3 years, but I currently make about $15k/mo doing software contracting (this is before paying any taxes, health care, etc.). I live in Mountain View, have a 700-800 sq ft 1 bedroom for $3000/mo. I currently am easily able to save $5k/mo towards retirement. I don't think I could do nearly as well as this financially back home.

No. 50% for housing is a non starter.

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