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1. Las Vegas - 70k
2. San Francisco (mountain view) - 78k
That's actually closer to San Jose-but SF is about 45 mins north by car in no traffic.
Mountain View is in Santa Clara County which has 1.7 Million people. It has options for housing that fits every budget range.
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The role (database developer) is pretty much identical with both companies, except the SF one pays a little more.
The job oppurtunities in the Bay Area are just plain better.
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Because of this my decision comes down to where is a better place to live, if we go for SF we would like to live a close as possible to the city as mountain view seems a little quiet from my one time visit observation.
If you decide to live in The City itself, CalTrain goes from Downtown SF straight thru Mountain View.
Many employers offer free shuttles to the CalTrain stations. Many employers are actually within walking distance of CalTrain too.
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We live fairly modest lives, both have cars, like to go out to eat once a week, once a week to the movies etc...
2 cars means perhaps maybe somewhere more car friendly like
The Inner Sunset...
The sunset district gets its name cause of its sunsets. Ocean Beach borders it...
Not bad. The Sunset is bordered by the ocean to the west and Golden Gate Park to the north.
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Just wondering if anyone else out there has any experience of living in both cities or has any thoughts / suggestions on this?
Thanks!
You definitely need to visit both areas and choose the one that best fits you.
I live and work in Silicon Valley, but I have a house here that I spend at least two weeks a month in - actually more time than I spend in CA. I've done this for nearly ten years, and I've lived in the Bay Area pretty much my entire life.
Everyone who says that 78k is barely enough to live on in the Bay Area is spot on. You'll never own a home in the Bay Area on a household income of 78k. For anything decent you'd need at least $300k/yr, which is actually easily attainable given Bay Area salaries if both spouses work. For cost of living, Las Vegas wins hands down. It's one of the reasons I love returning here every month. The cost of food there is ridiculous, $7 for a gallon of organic milk for instance.
It is absolutely not true that people do not commute to jobs in SF from Mountain View or even farther south - lots of people do it. People commute from Sacramento to San Francisco, or from Livermore or the Central Valley to San Jose. If you can use Cal Train to get to SF, and then public transportation from the Cal Train station to get to your job, the commute will be liveable. Have you considered Berkeley rather than Mountain View? Marin is beautiful, but probably out of your budget.
If you need to be near world-class universities so you can continue your education, well, that would be one item in favor of the Bay Area. If you are well-educated and would prefer to be in a place where there are a lot of people who are similarly well-educated, you'd want to be in the Bay Area (the good parts at least).
If the idea of foggy and 55 degrees in the summer doesn't appeal to you, there are certain microclimates you need to avoid. Oakland (I'd never live there, not even in the good parts in the hills) is considered by many to have the best weather - temperate, but w/o the fog of San Francisco. I like being able to jump in my pool at midnight - something I could never do in the Bay Area without a ridiculous heating bill. OTOH, I almost never have to run my A/C or heat there (just the few hottest and coldest days of the year), and my typical power is about $50 - maybe $70 those few months when I run the A/C or heat.
I think saying you need to make $300,000 to live in a decent home in the Bay Area is a HUGE stretch. I don't know too many making that kind of money and everyone I know owns very decents home in the Bay. I would say to live in a decent home in The Bay Area you need to make over $100,000 a year...not $300,000.
I would definitely chose Las Vegas. I used a cost of living calculator below, and you would need to make $111,000 in San Fransisco to equal $70,000 in Las Vegas.
Lots of fun pro/con going on here regarding numbers, COLA etc. However, I would still urge the OP to look critically at career advancement. Look at the reputation of the company you are going to be working for and the types of minds that you will be engaged with on a daily basis. Those become your future contacts.
Google, Intuit and Actel in MV are on a hiring blitz now (and I am going to assume your offer just might be with one of these). I too am moving where the best job, company and career path takes me. As much as I am also considering Vegas, like you, be aware that its not just the very next job you should be concerned with - its 2 or 3 jobs down the line.
Set yourself up in the best growth position that you can. Its not all about cost of rent/food/taxes today or next week or month. Comparing on surface variables alone is not how to make this decision.
Of all the advice you've received, give this post from lindbergh the most consideration. I'd otherwise easily recommend Las Vegas. You can pick up a home for a song right now, in suburbia just like in Mountain View. Yes, there is overall a somewhat better way of life in MV (milder weather, amenities available in NorCal) but cost of living is a definite factor for any family.
Still, career-wise you can be a healthy fish is a relatively small pond, or one in a pretty lively reef. Silicon Valley will afford you incredible networking opportunities. Then again, I can only speak for SF and the South Bay. I don't know the professional opportunities Las Vegas can offer. The big CES trade show is there every year, and depending on the kind of software programming you do that's at least one huge convention. There are others. LV is popular that way, so you won't be isolated. (I suppose your offer is from Unisys LV?) Wow, you can certainly go either way but if you do more research around the professional potential available in both areas I'd say let those better advantages be the deal maker over subjective issues of lifestyle.
Last edited by Bunjee; 10-14-2009 at 01:14 AM..
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