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You should be OK when you cash out of your home of 36 years... The only downside is, and it is a big one if you plan to stay in California, is you will be giving up an extremely low property tax bill for the privilege of moving.
On the bright side, just think of all the money you will adding to the local coffers for those of us that stay behind.
Any chance that the significant other will reconsider?
NOTHING will convince her, unfortunately. YES my property taxes,
no matter where we move, will rise. Currently at $2000 a year, probably
quadruple. But since I have no choice, I can either wallow in despair or take
a high road and view this as the opportunity of a lifetime. I would REALLY
like to stay within the area of signals served by KQED's 9.1 HD signal,
arguably the BEST TV period. That limits it to about 120 miles.. Anybody
wanna TRADE? yeah right..
As a German expat relocating to Bay Area, i feel that reading your posts is so much more interesting and "the real-life-scenario" than all political and socio-economic articles about the BA. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I myself am shocked about prices here, in Berlin/GER, you can find a 1500 sf apartment for less then 1000 $/month close to the centre. And that is the capital in a Western European country...(of course, Paris and London suffer the same gentrification than SF)
My wife and I have been thinking about leaving since we moved here in '89. She is a software engineer. I am a software engineer studying to be an attorney. She's from Pennsylvania and I'm from Chicago. We met in PA, worked in MD, VA, DC, north and south NJ, and NY before deciding to see what life was like in the bay area. This was mainly because I loved the ambiance that was SF. Still do. My wife would prefer to live near NY (Montclair, NJ), since she's an easterner at heart. I'm a midwesterner at heart. We bought a house and it has increased substantially in value. Since last year alone it has gone up about 15%..excellent location in a great school district, we lucked out there. Made a lot of money during the dot com boom from investments. We have kids now....so what?
I once thought that working as a software engineer in Rockville, MD was the worst place for a black man to be. High stress due to tight schedule demands, horrible traffic, long lines, bad attitudes, cold weather, open power struggles at work. I imagined that life would be less stressful in sunny CA and that being in silicon valley, I would be able to work on challenging emerging technologies. I have to admit, I was seduced by the beauty of the area. Before moving here however, I interviewed with a company in Mountain View. I saw few asians engineers, no indians, no blacks, no hispanics. Just a bunch of white guys who looked like they spent a lot of time prospecting for gold. One resembled the unibomber. Unfortunately, all were skeptical white engineers, a true good ol boy network working here. Richard Farley was a typical type of guy that I'm talking about. You can read about him here. 2-3 months after my interview, this lunatic went beserk just a few miles from where I interviewed.
They were in disbelief talking to me, forcing themselves to get past my race so they could ask me intelligent questions. They didn't succeed as I was repeatedly asked mundane questions. Very easy interview for me in terms of technical content. Their concern was whether I would fit in. I read this and didn't pay attention. My lunch was with the hiring manager (a white man from South Carolina) who spent the entire hour trying to find reasons not to hire me. When he came to the lobby where I was sitting alone, he called out my name looking everywhere but where I was sitting. Certainly, I couldn't be the person with those qualifications. He was deflated when I stood up. His final question of the day was "what kind of car do you drive?" I didn't get the job even though I was obviously well-qualified. I should've taken the clue. Absent during my interview were any black engineers. I didn't see any, anywhere. Only white unsophisticated people who were unaccustomed to being around black people and completely uncomfortable with the prospect of working with one as an equal. Silicon valley, huh? Sorry if this sounds like I'm angry, because I'm not. Probably a bit surprised with myself that I didn't trust my instincts back then. So mesmerized was I by the nice weather and the ambiance...what a fool.
Despite being rejected, I vowed to return. I interviewed and was immediately offered a position with this company's MD office, worked over a year, then transferred to the Mountain View office where I worked with these guys who had turned me down before. It wasn't all bad, but the biggest difference between the attitudes towards me here and the MD office was that the people here were skeptical of my abilities. There, they assumed that I was good. Here, they assumed that I wasn't and even if I did well, they still didn't believe it. In essence, behind all the smiling, joking, and pleasant expressions, behind the enormous frivolity and narcissism, were people who were grossly unfair in their evaluation of my worth as a professional and as a man. I was highly disappointed and remain so today.
Sorry to make this rant so long. Feels good to get it out there though. More later....
As a software engineer, the worst firms were in Sunnyvale. My God, just unbelievable unfairness in how I was treated. I worked for one company whose president was proud to be a self-proclaimed redneck. He surrounded himself by white guys in his likeness. It was a company of rednecks that still exists today. At this place, I was hired while my department head was on Christmas vacation. I got a decent increase and the firm was aggressive in bringing me on. When he returned from vacation, I heard him approaching my office being greeted by various people. He was very upbeat, happy, and eager to meet this new addition to his section, someone who on paper could help the entire organization design their software better to enable to firm to bid on larger projects worth substantially more than the small jobs they had specialized in. To him, I represented a person who could help transform the company. The problem is that he didn't know that I was black. When he reached my office and entered, as soon as he saw me, he became frozen. This Stanford-educated PhD's mood went from one of eager anticipation and optimistism to one of melancholy and resentment. "How the hell could this happen?" - a black man in my department?" At that point, it might've been wise for me to start looking for another job. Never deterred though, and currious about the challenge, I stayed. I felt that I could put up with this long enough to take advantage of the technology that this place specialized in, which would expose me to knowledge that would help me in my career. I reasoned that if this experience didn't kill me, it would make me stronger. Well it nearly killed me. The first year was very bad, worst I had ever experienced. The second year was better, or so I thought. Throughout the year, I received verbal accolades for my very creative work on about 8 projects by the people in charge of those projects. I did some good work that second year. At my annual review, I was told that not one person said anything good about what I did. I was shocked and angered because I realized that the Stanford racist had elevated his effort to get me to leave. I was told that if I didn't improve, I would be demoted, and my salary decreased. Well, that was the final straw. They had prevailed and I immediately began looking for another job. I left 4 months later to go to another Sunnyvale firm that was nearly as bad, at a slower pace. I just wasn't accustomed to this type of unprofessionalism, the redneck attitudes, the deceptive behavior. I was penalized for unknown reasons, tasked deceptively. I honestly had never experienced this kind of treatment back in the DC area. My wife and I prepared to move back, but we got caught in a lawsuit...sued by the purchaser of one of our condominiums.
It took us 5 years to fight this case as opposing counsel was aggressive and sought a $500K judgment. We were petrified, yet spent nearly $100k in our defense. During this time, I began to realize that I was in the wrong field, that perhaps law was much more suited for me. We countersued and sued our real estate agent as well. The result? We won a judgment of over $200K that happened to coincide with the time that I was laid off from the one Sunnyvale firm. I felt liberated, believe me! That nightmarish chapter of my career was over. Now I am transcending that nonsense to become a lawyer, where I will be more in control. I obtained my Masters after the layoff and now I feel on the right track all the more wiser and certainly a lot more mature.
Silicon valley has changed a great deal since when I first came here. The good ol boy network still exists, but it is tempered somewhat by outsourcing and the willingness of these firms to hire indians and asians in great numbers. Good for them. I don't blame the companies. They get well-qualified labor, possibly for lower cost. These two groups dominate the market now. Blacks seem non-existent here, at least in silicon valley. This could be because not that many blacks go into engineering or that the blacks who do go into it and work here face the same problems I encountered or a combination of both. One has to always reinvent themselves here to stay marketable because the cost of living doesn't tolerate stagnation. If you come here expecting to work for a firm until you retire, think again. I came here with a degree in Applied Math and Computer Science, expecting to develop mathematical models for firms doing research in emerging and cutting-edge technologies. Instead, I found myself being steered away from these areas to less-challenging, less-important, more mundane tasks because the prevailing attitude in this unsophisticated place is that a black man is not that good. My salary increases were always on the low end and I only got promoted by leaving companies. But again, this was silicon valley in engineering. Seems very different for law.
So what? God, just another rant by some angry black man, right? Well, one can't help but be angered. It doesn't feel like anger, more like a fire in my belly. "The utter gaul of these people to treat someone like me this way!" Far different from what one would expect from silicon valley. It is the reason why I never feel settled here and why we will leave someday...we just don't know where yet.
I was visiting friends today and noticed two new Open Houses on their street and decided to stop and take a look.
I casually knew one of the families selling and asked why they would sell after only a year and after making the home look so nice.
Jose' told me he did not want to sell but he could no longer afford the mortgage payments when his loan adjusted up on the one-year anniversary. He was able to buy with 100% financing and a very low interest rate for the first 12 months.
Sad to see the family have to sell... very nice people. Their home is listed for $540k and I will be watching to see when and for how much it sells for.
He said he is hoping for the best... but if all else fails, he would have to return to Mexico with his family.
Read your post. I'm in software engineering myself, and I've dismayed that Blacks are very under-represented here. There were once some consultants from a partner company that worked with us, 2 asians and one black, and I liked all of them but thought the black guy was the sharpest. But then they took him off the project, saying that he was going to another project, but who knows. At the time, all the people in my group of 8 (including the manager) were chinese and indian, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
What were you sued about? Is it related to moving out of the bay area?
Read your post. I'm in software engineering myself, and I've dismayed that Blacks are very under-represented here. There were once some consultants from a partner company that worked with us, 2 asians and one black, and I liked all of them but thought the black guy was the sharpest. But then they took him off the project, saying that he was going to another project, but who knows. At the time, all the people in my group of 8 (including the manager) were chinese and indian, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
What were you sued about? Is it related to moving out of the bay area?
The buyer of the condo that we had sold experienced leaks after he moved in. On viewing the disclosure statements, his contention was that they were misleading. He claimed we failed to disclose the history of leaks and repairs, and that the roof was never fixed correctly (all not true). We were sued for non-disclosure and fraud. He sought extensive damages including exemplary. He ultimately lost because he abused the process, running up legal costs by being uncooperative, and exaggerating his claims because his case was meritless. We were fortunate to uncover the failures of our real estate though. Turns out that he should've instructed us better, so he failed his duty to us which is why we prevailed against him as well.
The case is only relevant in that it made me aware that I would probably gain much more fulfillment as a lawyer. The lawsuit was not the reason why we're contemplating moving however.
I think in the coming months we'll see lots of the above article in the Bay Area -- about how buyers signed contracts to buy houses, then when the housing market slumps they try to get out of the contracts by hiring lawyers to find faults.
I have to live in Washington D.C. for 9 mos to finish school, and then I am leaving. Where will I live???
I am trying to decide if I should return to San Francisco and live broke. I don't have a job yet, so I will just try to pass the CA bar.
I am in Chicago this summer, which is a fun place but people aren't that open minded. I just try not to think about it and enjoy living on the lake here for 1K per month.
But I wonder, who cares if the cost of living is cheap if you hate talking to your neighbors and coworkers?
I am in Chicago this summer, which is a fun place but people aren't that open minded. I just try not to think about it and enjoy living on the lake here for 1K per month.
But I wonder, who cares if the cost of living is cheap if you hate talking to your neighbors and coworkers?
Just me
You can get a studio in SF for about 1K a month, utilities included.
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Been thinking about leaving
Chicago/D.C. great places to visit...
