Considering a promotion in Sunnyvale... questions about the area (how much, hotel)
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I agree with everything she wrote. Part of the reason the culture is more open is the large international presence, which I like.
mixxalot posted that to "live well in SV you need to make at least $150k". I would move the figure a little lower. If you're single, or single+significant other, then I personally think Living Well = $125k+ for your household income. This would include renting a nice $1800+ apartment.
I've been making $40-50K for the last five years, living on the peninsula and in San Jose with my partner and while I couldn't save or travel or anything, I've never felt squeezed. I just landed a new job that will bump up my income to the $80K range, and I don't plan on changing a thing. I'll still be living as if I was making half as much, and I'll buy my first home probably when I'm 30 or so.
1. You will not be able to buy a house, houses cost a minimum of $800,000, if you're lucky, and $115 is not a lot of money per year to support yourself. Also most houses in the South Bay are teardowns (sorry people in the South Bay, it's true I live there) You will be paying off the house for the rest of your life with high payments (well over $2600 a month). Even apartments cost $1700 at the minimum.
2. There is good health care such as Kaiser, that is the one of the only pros of living here, Kaiser is what I go with, and if you move here, go with them.
3. CUPERTINO SCHOOLS ARE NOT EXCELLENT!!! The schools there are AVERAGE and don't be fooled into thinking that they have good schools, they don't. Please don't be fooled into it, the test scores mean nothing, students get Fs on their report card just like any other school. I know a kid that goes to a middle school in Cupertino, and he told me there are some kids that are smoking there (and they're only 13!).
4. 115K isn't a lot of money in the South Bay. Trust me, the housing will cost you the majority of your salary until you can barely support yourself.
The South Bay is NOT a family area, other than Great America there is NOTHING in the South Bay. There are weekends where I wonder what to do because there is nothing to do. 115 K isn't a lot of money, even with 200 K is equal to 100 K OR LESS in Texas. The only thing to do is to travel 40+ minutes to Santa Cruz or San Francisco. Also, the demographics show that the white population is a minority ESPECIALLY IN CUPERTINO. I would rather move to Texas than stay here. If you want to live in Cupertino, don't do it, I know people that live there, that HATE IT! What I said is completely true and I don't want to make the South Bay look bad, but there's no other choice, there is nothing good about it.
DON'T COME TO CALIFORNIA, STAY IN TEXAS!
If you want to have more questions, give me a message, I would love to answer them. I'm here to help you, so you won't do the wrong move.
For others, take my advice on not moving to the South Bay. If you want to live in California, go to San Diego, it is simply awesome.
Well, it must be apartment from the nature of his post (s), but please don't take his advice
The OP will have the option of Kaiser health insurance. Until I moved out of their service area I was a subscriber: as a kid, as a single adult, as a married mom... almost a whole life cycle. I appreciated their care and staff. You can find horror stories about every medical institution including Stanford and Kaiser. Nothing is perfect but I have no complaints about the care we received through Kaiser.
I agree that home prices will come as a shock to OP and his wife but they can figure it out, and if they can't make it work for them move on with a great story on his resume.
Sebastian: sounds like you're not happy here which is perfectly understandable and totally fine. Most of what you said is accurate, I just want to point out a few things that I don't agree with:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastian K.
The South Bay is NOT a family area, other than Great America there is NOTHING in the South Bay. There are weekends where I wonder what to do because there is nothing to do.
I think South Bay is quite a pleasant area for families. It's beautiful, tranquil and remarkably crime-free.
As for nothing to do, I disagree. There's plenty of nice parks and tennis courts, great restaurants (particularly East Indian), and some nightlife activity on the main streets of the various towns. There's also some decent coffee shops and bookstores to hang out.
Quote:
For others, take my advice on not moving to the South Bay. If you want to live in California, go to San Diego, it is simply awesome.
[/quote]
San Diego is good too, but I prefer the South Bay because of the job opportunities and the proximity to San Francisco.
With the area being so competitive, housing so expensive, and a large population... I don't get how anyone can say it isn't a "family" area or there is nothing to do.
While I've only visited San Jose, Fremont, and Napa Valley for work in the past... to me it seems just like any other urban area in the United States. I live in San Antonio, a city of 1.4 million people. Hell, our metro area is in the top 10 in the country.
The only thing I'm particularly concerned about is housing and schools. The rest is the same, cost-wise. Oh, and the fact that California will be taking a huge chunk of my paycheck out each pay period compared to Texas where there is no income tax at all, and a lower sales tax. That blows my mind.
Checked the cost of living comparison calculator at Sperlings Best Places and found the following for the same standard of living, if you were moving from Austin to Sunnyvale. Chose Austin as it is another center for electronics.
A salary of $85,000 in Austin, Texas should increase to $145,829 in Sunnyvale, California for the same standard of living. $115,000 will give you a considerable lower living standard than where you currently are at about $30,000 below what you would need to live at the same standard.
Checked the cost of living comparison calculator at Sperlings Best Places and found the following for the same standard of living, if you were moving from Austin to Sunnyvale. Chose Austin as it is another center for electronics.
A salary of $85,000 in Austin, Texas should increase to $145,829 in Sunnyvale, California for the same standard of living. $115,000 will give you a considerable lower living standard than where you currently are at about $30,000 below what you would need to live at the same standard.
Those cost of living calculators are primarily based upon housing. I think CNN moneys COL calculator said housing was almost 200% more expensive, therefore skewing the results.
Verio, I came here just last week. However did a lot of investigation before and after coming though. Although your situation is different than mine but you can use mine as an approximator.
Looked around apartments for past two day, for nicer 1bedroom apartment that I used to pay 500-600$ in Austin, I will have to spend 1600$ minimum to get same quality. I tried finding place couple of hundred bucks below and finding the quality will drop real fast below that range.
Difference is in Austin is that in TX, on top of rent, parking, garbage, water, gas added to the rent which increases rent by 100-150$ but here I found most of the apt takes care everything except electricity. So I would say rent will be 2-2.5 fold increase.
Other than housing cost, one biggie that others omitted seem to be the state tax, currently running at around ~10%. Although it is not 10% out of your income it gets progressively higher. First 45000$ is 5% rest is 10% etc cant remember the detail but u get the pic.
I got offer for 105K and found CA state tax alone will be around 7% of my income. Added to the federal tax, of around ~20% and I am giving out close to 30% of my income just for tax vs I just paid 14% of my income back in tax on 70k$. But I am single with no dependents so you may get substantially lower tax than mine, so it might help to run the numbers and you will be surprised how it really adds up.
I just stationed at a small hotel in Sunnyvale area, and found this area is awesome just driving through streets, and who knows what other great places are.
Also went to SFO downtown and spent few hours there, and it reminds me of Manhattan and there must be so much to see.
So quality of life is much better for me, It seems as if it is worth every penny spend here. I am not sure how my this first impression will change on the long run though. I just think TX is no match for the charm and vibrant lifestyle CA offers.
Also good news is that I hear on local TV economy is starting to sizzle here compared to year ago. Tech companies are leading indicators of drive but construction and other industries seem to be doing real bad. Although CA Unemployment second highest in the nation this time, it is steadily dropping. http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ca.htm
If it continues to do that, who knows real estate price will go up and it might be best time to buy a house now.
Last edited by guyencd000; 05-11-2011 at 01:38 AM..
1. You will not be able to buy a house, houses cost a minimum of $800,000, if you're lucky, and $115 is not a lot of money per year to support yourself. Also most houses in the South Bay are teardowns (sorry people in the South Bay, it's true I live there) You will be paying off the house for the rest of your life with high payments (well over $2600 a month). Even apartments cost $1700 at the minimum.
2. There is good health care such as Kaiser, that is the one of the only pros of living here, Kaiser is what I go with, and if you move here, go with them.
3. CUPERTINO SCHOOLS ARE NOT EXCELLENT!!! The schools there are AVERAGE and don't be fooled into thinking that they have good schools, they don't. Please don't be fooled into it, the test scores mean nothing, students get Fs on their report card just like any other school. I know a kid that goes to a middle school in Cupertino, and he told me there are some kids that are smoking there (and they're only 13!).
4. 115K isn't a lot of money in the South Bay. Trust me, the housing will cost you the majority of your salary until you can barely support yourself.
The South Bay is NOT a family area, other than Great America there is NOTHING in the South Bay. There are weekends where I wonder what to do because there is nothing to do. 115 K isn't a lot of money, even with 200 K is equal to 100 K OR LESS in Texas. The only thing to do is to travel 40+ minutes to Santa Cruz or San Francisco. Also, the demographics show that the white population is a minority ESPECIALLY IN CUPERTINO. I would rather move to Texas than stay here. If you want to live in Cupertino, don't do it, I know people that live there, that HATE IT! What I said is completely true and I don't want to make the South Bay look bad, but there's no other choice, there is nothing good about it.
DON'T COME TO CALIFORNIA, STAY IN TEXAS!
If you want to have more questions, give me a message, I would love to answer them. I'm here to help you, so you won't do the wrong move.
For others, take my advice on not moving to the South Bay. If you want to live in California, go to San Diego, it is simply awesome.
I got some question from you. At this time I heard housing prices plunged and some houses are almost half as worth as they used to be 1-2 years ago. Would not you find a cheaper than 800K???
Also I lived in TX for some time and althought it is great and inexpensive, my social life was pretty much screwed, for the person like me it was way too boring. So I would spend more and have a great life in CA than the other way around. Just a thought.
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