<story><title>Housing in the Bay Area</title><url>http://blog.samaltman.com/housing-in-the-bay-area</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danjayh</author><text>With you all the way.&lt;p&gt;I have 11 acres, horses, a goat, cats, a dog, and I live 15 minutes from downtown and 17 minutes from work. This is in a mid-sized midwest city (Grand Rapids, MI). While I realize that I could achieve a substantial pay raise on one of the coasts, a similarly sized plot there would cost millions. I paid under 200k 5 years ago with a 1500sf house on it, and it&amp;#x27;s still probably only worth the mid 200k range after we improved it (cleared 6 acres of trees, planted and fenced a bunch of pasture, made significant improvements to the house). I could not achieve a similar lifestyle on an engineer&amp;#x27;s salary near a major urban center on a coast ... and I have no desire to move to one :).&lt;p&gt;Plus, I get to make avionics, which is on my short list of the best jobs ever.</text></item><item><author>jevinskie</author><text>There is so much pressure, career-wise, to move to either the Bay Area, the West Coast in general, or a major urban hub.&lt;p&gt;I honestly like living in a semi-rural part of the Midwest. I &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; seeing fields and forests while driving to work. If I want to get out to some wilderness, I can do so in 15-30 minutes. I travel in a car that, I feel, offers me freedom. To boot, I have a nice, reserved spot in the garage below my apartment. I live &lt;i&gt;downtown&lt;/i&gt; and I still feel great freedom&amp;#x2F;&amp;quot;space&amp;quot;. I cant imagine being able to do anything like this in a place like SF or even Chicago.&lt;p&gt;My cost of living is very cheap. My commute is 15 minutes. I live close to my family. Why should I want to leave?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>retro64</author><text>I think this endorsement should be qualified.  While it&amp;#x27;s true there is more space here in GR, there is a reason for that:  people leave as soon as they can (for various reasons; the lack of sun (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.ncdc.noaa.gov&amp;#x2F;pub&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;ccd-data&amp;#x2F;pctposrank.txt&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.ncdc.noaa.gov&amp;#x2F;pub&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;ccd-data&amp;#x2F;pctposrank.txt&lt;/a&gt;), lack of opportunity or even this vaguely defined yet very strong pressure to conform to an invisible fence of ideology.  Change and outside ideas are slow to take root, to put it mildly.&lt;p&gt;I have worked in tech here for over 10 years and there are very few jobs.  I&amp;#x27;ve already used up Plans A, B and C.  My next move will probably be somewhere else (if I&amp;#x27;m still competitive).  This is where you go to retire, not to advance your career.</text></comment>
<story><title>Housing in the Bay Area</title><url>http://blog.samaltman.com/housing-in-the-bay-area</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danjayh</author><text>With you all the way.&lt;p&gt;I have 11 acres, horses, a goat, cats, a dog, and I live 15 minutes from downtown and 17 minutes from work. This is in a mid-sized midwest city (Grand Rapids, MI). While I realize that I could achieve a substantial pay raise on one of the coasts, a similarly sized plot there would cost millions. I paid under 200k 5 years ago with a 1500sf house on it, and it&amp;#x27;s still probably only worth the mid 200k range after we improved it (cleared 6 acres of trees, planted and fenced a bunch of pasture, made significant improvements to the house). I could not achieve a similar lifestyle on an engineer&amp;#x27;s salary near a major urban center on a coast ... and I have no desire to move to one :).&lt;p&gt;Plus, I get to make avionics, which is on my short list of the best jobs ever.</text></item><item><author>jevinskie</author><text>There is so much pressure, career-wise, to move to either the Bay Area, the West Coast in general, or a major urban hub.&lt;p&gt;I honestly like living in a semi-rural part of the Midwest. I &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; seeing fields and forests while driving to work. If I want to get out to some wilderness, I can do so in 15-30 minutes. I travel in a car that, I feel, offers me freedom. To boot, I have a nice, reserved spot in the garage below my apartment. I live &lt;i&gt;downtown&lt;/i&gt; and I still feel great freedom&amp;#x2F;&amp;quot;space&amp;quot;. I cant imagine being able to do anything like this in a place like SF or even Chicago.&lt;p&gt;My cost of living is very cheap. My commute is 15 minutes. I live close to my family. Why should I want to leave?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ccarter84</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s an awesome setup and cost of living. If most of family and friends didnt have deep roots here I&amp;#x27;d totally consider saying screw this place. Actually, I still may, but gonna ride it out a bit longer.</text></comment>