That is kind of depressing. My wife would swear I was joking if I told her that we could rent a house for $3,000 more than our mortgage that was less than half size and looks like something built in the 70s.
And people on HN wonder why software engineers living in other major cities in the US have no interest in going to the west coast.
Nobody wonders why. The Bay Area is clearly more expensive than anywhere else other than NYC. Nobody has ever argued that that isn't true. The salaries are also significantly higher, to compensate.
What is being argued here is whether you can live comfortably on a six figure net salary (after taxes).
That housing is expensive in the bay area does suck, no doubt, and is super annoying. But it's far worse for non-engineers. Engineers are fine, and frankly, are the ones who are driving the prices up, by virtue of being capable of and willing to pay more, as companies continue to increase compensation.
Are the salaries “significantly enough higher” that someone moving to the Bay Area could buy a 3000 square foot 5 bed/3-1/2 bath house with a large office, as soon as they move there?
The average software as a service CRUD journeymen developer could do that in many non west coast cities could do that with an FHA loan with less than $15K down with 3-5 with a salary they can make with around 5 years experience. If they are part of a married dual income couple they would be quite comfortable.
They look like they were built in the 70s because they were. That generation decided there were enough houses and promptly banned building any new ones - so we've still got the same ones.
For some reason most of them have the original gross beige carpet too.
OTOH, they do - frequently. If you can bank half your take home which is totally doable you get to move out and buy whatever home you like nearly wherever you like and retire.
Or if you are married dual income earner you can get a job anywhere else, not have to spend $5000 a month rent just to live in a small 35 year old house, live off one income and save the other.....
And people on HN wonder why software engineers living in other major cities in the US have no interest in going to the west coast.