That’s it, darn my memory. Next door but one is a new sweet shop with sweets and chocolates from all round the world. (well Europe and USA at least…)
To give a ball park, you can rent in Santa Clara a one bedroom appartment for arround $900 a month at the low end. If you allready own a house elsewhere you might consider renting it out to offset your Silicon Valley rental costs. Buying a place here starts around $450,000 but up in the mountains can be much cheaper. In the mountains you’ll need a good 4 wheel drive truck to get up any private roads in the area, and need to be pretty self sufficient when it comes to entertainment since you will be miles of wikedly windy roads away from any entertainment hotspots.
I don’t trust these freebie calculators much though. The percentages I posted were using 2 different metro Atlanta “bedroom communities” that I’ve lived near in the past: Decatur and Peachtree City. But when I used Atlanta proper to make the calculation, the difference was only around 200% higher in Mountain View, CA, with my current salary only being 33% deficient.
So which one is more valid? I hope the more general approach. I simply don’t see anything even close to the anecdotal evidence of the alleged shift in cost of living going from Midtown Atlanta to Decatur…
And that businessman won’t be in business for long. He won’t be able to attract good employees in a tight market and the company will fail. There are always attractive places to live in any large metro area, the bosses will find them. If they can’t find employees willing or able to take the jobs the company goes bye-bye.
I work in a highly competative high-tech industry, and you have to have your company in places that people want to work. We need to be near public transportation in order to be viable. If the bosses moved the company elsewhere for personal reasons they’d lose half the employee base, and we can’t afford to do that.
I’ve gone through this many times as offices have moved, and trust me, it’s an important part of the process. Where the boss lives never enters into it.
I live in Sunnyvale, which is about 10-12 miles from Los Gatos.
Hmmm. I wonder how much you can rely on the wage calculator. Housing prices are, of course, insane. Rents are high, but very stable. Food and clothing prices are pretty much a wash. Gas prices may be slightly higher.
If you move here from most places in the country, you probably save a bunch on heating/AC. I hardly ever heat my apartment. This summer we had one hellacious week in which the temps soared to 107 during the day. It was the first time in 24 years (I moved here in '82) that I wished for an air conditioner at home.
That aside: It’s just a domino effect that’s been going on since the early 1970s. High-tech/engineering took off here. HP and Fairchild Electronics led to Intel, Apple, etc. which led to Cisco, etc. and well, you get the picture. A big supply of engineering and marketing talent, good schools, nice weather (particularly for Asian immigrants).
Some of us choose to live here. We’re close to reasonably good skiing in the Sierras, reasonably good diving in Monterey, Yosemite National Park, kayaking in the Pacific or the Bay, San Francisco, etc. This area is arguably a world-class center for the following sports:
bicycling, both road and mountain
rock climbing
running
triathlons
skiing
backpacking
kayaking
white-water rafting
waterskiing
fishing
sailing
surfing
rollerblading
windsurfing/kitesurfing
plus
Napa Valley-world-class wines
San Francisco
National Parks (Yosemite, Lassen, Sequoia/King’s Canyon)
I’m not trying to booster this area; it’s got problems of course (traffic in particular). But it’s not like someone decided to make Paoli, Pennsylvania the high-tech capital of the world. As far as I know, all Paoli has going for it is a train station…
As far as I’m concerned, it’s way too cold much of the year, and it doesn’t rain nearly enough. Also, the beach isn’t supposed to be rocky, or near a cliff. Keep in mind that climate preferences really are personal. I wouldn’t want to live there, even if I could afford it.
I was going to link to him as well. The VC firm that he is part of requires the startups they fund to locate in either the East or West coast (in their building no less). Their feeling is that it is the only possible way to develop and maintain the business relationships needed for further funding. It’s a bit disconcerting to me since I am committed to staying in the midwest.
Actually, I live where all the bay area schmucks come for vacation. You seem nice, so here are some tips for next time you want to leave your paychecks here:
Watching poker on ESPN doesn’t make you a better player.
Take the chains off when they start sparking and motorcycles pass you.
You’re not in California anymore, we don’t care how you do it there.
Haha, if they had lower standards–or I had more published writing, industry experience, etc.–I’d try out for the Game Designer: Missions position and there’d be two.
Good luck getting things to work out; it sounds like a great job.
