Rent is so high in San Francisco that I’m a software engineer and I live in a van (student loan, camper)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by likealady

I just took a quick look for shared apartments in SF and many were around 1500 give or take. I'm guessing she's based down in SV. Yeah, still not "cheap" but where can you get cheap in the Bay Area or any major city nowadays anyway? Sure, it sucks having roomies, but it beats living in a freaking 1960s VW camper. If her student loan debt is really that bad, I would have said why bother moving to the Bay Area at all? She could easily make a decent salary in a number of cities and not have to pay SF rent prices. She could have moved here after establishing herself a little more and/or paying down her debt. Really I think she's just seeking attention.

This. Totally bogus story. Rent can be had at far less than she says, and nobody said she had to live in SF or even SV. And if she has huge student loan debt, then that's really the issue, not the high rents. It's "My student loan debt is so high that I'm a software engineer and I live in a van".

[cardinal2007]

Even at $1000/mo you can rent a room in a non-crappy apartment in Silicon Valley, I agree that this is probably just attention seeking.

Furnished Room for Rent in Large 3 BR Townhouse next to SJ Caltrain
That listing is literally less than a 3 minute walk from the San Jose Caltrain in a 11 year old townhouse. Yeah, no parking, I get it that's tough. But seriously comparing an old van to a room in a relatively new townhouse close to public transit is kind of so-so. She probably didn't want to spend any real money for housing, so great, but don't go around exaggerating, there is housing to be had for up to $1000/mo.

Now if she had a budget of $700, then she would be up a creek without a paddle so to speak.

[Radical347]

I actually read the article and I think she makes a lot of sense and doesn’t come across as whiny or attention-seeking. Her decision to not pay $2000/month for a mediocre place is more driven by thinking it’s not a good value (and she’s right) rather than not being able to afford it. Then, she comes up with an alternate solution which allows her to stay, relatively comfortably and not on other peoples’ dimes. She sounds resourceful to me.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by Radical347

I actually read the article and I think she makes a lot of sense and doesn’t come across as whiny or attention-seeking. Her decision to not pay $2000/month for a mediocre place is more driven by thinking it’s not a good value (and she’s right) rather than not being able to afford it. Then, she comes up with an alternate solution which allows her to stay, relatively comfortably and not on other peoples’ dimes. She sounds resourceful to me.

I actually thought the same, but I see others disagree (or didn't read the entire article?).

Either way, I think you're right in that her more general point isn't so much that she personally couldn't afford something if she had really wanted to, but rather that she found it to not be a good value (to which I agree).

I've been personally looking into creative ways to get around the stupid costs of the area - one idea I had was to buy a tiny house. The problem there (of course) is finding the land to park it. And even though I recently found some cheap land that would be perfect for it, I ran into giant problems when trying to acquire said land - basically, they told me that if I tried to live on the land in anything other than a house that's 1,600 sq feet that they would come after me (which to me sounds ridiculous...why do I need a freaking 1,600 sq ft house!??? And they can really dicatate that I can't just "camp" on my land? Kind of ridiculous).

I always think it's cool when I read about people finding creative ways to save money in the area (even if they're "spoiled" and such).

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by Radical347

I actually read the article and I think she makes a lot of sense and doesn’t come across as whiny or attention-seeking. Her decision to not pay $2000/month for a mediocre place is more driven by thinking it’s not a good value (and she’s right) rather than not being able to afford it. Then, she comes up with an alternate solution which allows her to stay, relatively comfortably and not on other peoples’ dimes. She sounds resourceful to me.

Except it is not an accurate comparison, she is saying the best she can get from $1000/mo is a room the size and quality of the van, and the craigslist posting shows otherwise. Fine that she wants to save money, but why exaggerate, rents are high, yeah, but don't pretend she is saving $12k/yr, when a comparable unit will probably be less.

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

Except it is not an accurate comparison, she is saying the best she can get from $1000/mo is a room the size and quality of the van, and the craigslist posting shows otherwise. Fine that she wants to save money, but why exaggerate, rents are high, yeah, but don't pretend she is saving $12k/yr, when a comparable unit will probably be less.

Which Craigslist posting? The one in the article advertising a shared room with 8 people for $1000/month?

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by Radical347

Which Craigslist posting? The one in the article advertising a shared room with 8 people for $1000/month?

The one I linked to on this thread....

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by Radical347

Which Craigslist posting? The one in the article advertising a shared room with 8 people for $1000/month?

I think cardinal2007 was talking about this CL post:

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

Even at $1000/mo you can rent a room in a non-crappy apartment in Silicon Valley, I agree that this is probably just attention seeking.

Furnished Room for Rent in Large 3 BR Townhouse next to SJ Caltrain
That listing is literally less than a 3 minute walk from the San Jose Caltrain in a 11 year old townhouse. Yeah, no parking, I get it that's tough. But seriously comparing an old van to a room in a relatively new townhouse close to public transit is kind of so-so. She probably didn't want to spend any real money for housing, so great, but don't go around exaggerating, there is housing to be had for up to $1000/mo.

Now if she had a budget of $700, then she would be up a creek without a paddle so to speak.

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

The one I linked to on this thread....

Ok, thanks. Just saw it. True, that does look like a better living situation than the van. But once she gets past the initial expenses (which she mentioned in the article as 3 months worth of rent), she’s saving nearly all of the rent each month. How much do you think her van-type unit would go for? $500-700?

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by Radical347

Ok, thanks. Just saw it. True, that does look like a better living situation than the van. But once she gets past the initial expenses (which she mentioned in the article as 3 months worth of rent), she’s saving nearly all of the rent each month. How much do you think her van-type unit would go for? $500-700?

Probably $600, San Jose ain't cheap (I remember being able to get a cheap room with much more space in the mid '00s for $550/mo in the peninsula), I don't know where the poster parked it though. Maybe she managed to get away with parking it in Mountain View, in which case $800 or $900 might now sound out of the case. It sounds like she would have no reason to seek out putting it in San Francisco, so I doubt an analysis based on the crazy SF rents would make sense.

Yeah, of course she is saving money, just comes off as look at how smart I am saving money like this. She could buy a camper and leave it park in the an office park she works at, like someone at Google supposedly did, the closer to a studio apartment it gets the more it doesn't seem crazy, one thing people forget is that eating out can be expensive in comparison to eating cheap pasta, rice and beans, etc.