What does it take to live in Palo Alto & still have a life? (San Jose: real estate, apartments)

[irishman_irl]

Hi All,
I live in the east bay & have been working from home for two years (software engineer), just back from an afternoon drive around the leafy suburbs of Palo Alto as I've been considering getting a full time job in the area.

I'm kind of shell shocked at just how much rent costs down their, we currently pay $1600 for a one bedroom apartment within walking distance to the BART, gym, restaurants etc.. but in PA a similar place looks to be around $3.2k!! Buying looks even more insane, we seen a few old piles of soon to be rubble, disguised as homes, being sold for upwards of $900k!

My salary expectations as a software developer, 29 years old, 8 years experience with 4 in a team lead role is about $110k.....maybe this far to low for a "valley job" considering the living costs?

Most software jobs require that you work about 60+ hours a week so a long commute is not really an option.

Just wondering how other people manage to live in this area - do you really commute long distances OR is the typical salary far higher than what I'm considering?

[humboldtrat]

Looking forward to hsw's response!

[jaypee]

How do people afford to live in PA? Not everyone's a sw engineer and sw engineers are not the top of the food chain.
Make more $, have roommates, two-income household, settle for dumpier apartments, etc.

[irishman_irl]

Originally Posted by jaypee

How do people afford to live in PA? Not everyone's a sw engineer and sw engineers are not the top of the food chain.
Make more $, have roommates, two-income household, settle for dumpier apartments, etc.

I never said everyone was a sw engineer or top of the food chain - but it is my profession & I of course I mention it to put things in context

[clongirl]

90% of people can't afford to live in Palo Alto! Of the few people I know that do live there, two are VPs of large tech firms--both married to other high income people so incomes are probably around 400k a year or more. I also know a couple where the wife works for Stanford and her husband is a corporate lawyer. Big bucks.

Your expectations for an engineer role seem just a tad low depending on the size of the company, but most people do either commute from outlying areas, have roommates, or are married/partnered with other people with similar incomes which generally gives more options.

You may want to check glassdoor.com to get a sense of what other engineers are making also to compare/negotiate. There are also other cities in the region that are a bit less pricey.

[clongirl]

Originally Posted by humboldtrat

Looking forward to hsw's response!

Oh gawd...please no.

[humboldtrat]

Why does it have to be Palo Alto? Look around Mountain View, Sunnyvale to the south or Redwood City and San Carlos to the north. A 1 bedroom apt for about $1600 is doable.

[mdwstrnkid]

Your salary expectations are reasonable (maybe even a bit low, given your experience), but Palo Alto is simply an expensive place to live. Most of my friends who live there are either two-income families or have one of the wage-earners at a management or executive level. That said, you should be able to find a 1BR apartment for less than $3200. You should be able to find a 2BR place for less than that in Palo Alto.

To answer your question, I work in software in Palo Alto and commute from San Francisco (almost daily - I rarely work from home). I do suspect that we will eventually move down to the Peninsula, though given the price of housing in SF, we actually might actually save money; we pay more than that for a 2BR condo in SF.

[mayorhaggar]

Get an apartment in Mountain View or San Jose. If you really want to work in Silicon Valley you have to deal with Bay Area real estate prices. Or get a job somewhere like Arizona or Austin TX or whatever if buying a house is that important to you.

[irishman_irl]

We will take a drive over to Mountain View / San Jose & Redwood city next weekend & check those areas out, rent prices on craigslist look much more affordable.

Thanks for the tips on salary info, I'll do a bit more investigation into what I should be asking for.

Why is Palo Alto so expensive, its a nice area for sure, but seems a little sleepy / quiet compared to other parts of the bay....is it just its proximity to the many office parks or old money trying to keep prices high by keeping out any new housing stock?

Mayorhaggar - I hear you, prices are what they are in the valley, but I don't get how just about every half decent house around there is a million dollar+ home, not even talking about anything opulent, who is buying theses houses & what do they do for a living.....can only be so many VC's & tech CEO's or maybe I'm being naive, they are clearly not lowly software engineers anyway ;-)