Geeks and quality of life (was Re: A moment of silence...) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

29 May 2000

--- sjm &lt;sethm(a)loomcom.com&gt; wrote:
...
  I love the Bay Area.  I was born in San Francisco, I
really
 consider this place home despite my family roots in New England
 (which is just too hot in the summer, and too cold in the winter)...

 Or, I can afford a four bedroom home in the nicest suburb of
 Columbus, Ohio.  (Yes, I realise Columbus Ohio fails my weather test.
 Otherwise, I'd be there :) 
What ever made you pick Columbus as your touchstone?  If you prefer Bay
Area weather, I guarantee that it fails your weather test, but, yes, the
housing prices are quite moderate (with salaries to match ;-)

On the plus side, a nice house in one of the very desirable sections of town
goes from $225K to $350K, new houses in a modest neighborhood are more
like $160K to $180K, and in my neighborhood (near Ohio State University, so
city schools for those folks that care), it's closer to $110K to $150K for
a 50-70 year-old two-to-three bedroom house.  On my mother's street (three
blocks from OSU), the houses are 4-bedroom brick, pre-WWI, and run around
$125K.

It's a huge range, depending on where you want to live, how long you want it
to take to get to work (since the geek jobs are concentrated on the NW side
of the city, in and near Dublin (think "Memorial Tournament")).  I drive 12.5
miles to get to work only because I take surface streets and avoid the
freeway which is under massive construction all around the part of town that
has a high concentration of tech jobs.

Now... the other side of the coin: the coin.  My experience around here is
that a 10+ year UNIX administrator can get between $50K - $100K, depending
on salary vs. contract, size of employer, quality of negotiating skills, etc.
NT and Novell admins get about 75%-80% of that.  Programmers can get anywhere
...
 from $40K - $100K, depending on the esoteric nature of
the work, project based vs product based, language, etc.  I do not know any geeks
personally in this
market who I know to be making a bunch over $100K, but I do know a lot of
people earning between $50K and $75K.

I used to say that I would never personally take a Bay Area job for less than
$125K/year.  I would be lowering my standard of living.  Given the nature of
the housing market there, I might have to revise my number.  I don't think I
want to try to buy a $600K+ house.

This is not meant as an advertisement for Columbus.  It's some numbers to
put the California experience into some perspective.  I wouldn't mind visiting,
but I wouldn't want to live there.  I'm sure Hans and other Europeans here will
have some interesting comments on the difference bewteen housing and energy
costs between the two continents.  

-ethan

=====
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