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0 pointsApocryphon4y ago0 comments

Tech being concentrated in the Bay Area certainly exacerbates inequality and cost of living increases, though the fault is less individual workers and more corporate leadership and VC firms insisting on concentrating there even when it might not be geographically necessary.

The sad thing though is that it seems even when you disperse highly paid workers who can work from home, inequality will continue even in other markets, see Austin, Miami [0], Nashville [1].

Then again, those markets were booming even before tech workers moved to there.

[0] https://therealdeal.com/la/2021/09/28/miami-nips-at-ny-for-t...

[1] https://fox17.com/news/local/real-estate-market-so-hot-this-...

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cletus4y ago

So let's talk about NYC as it's a place I know a fair bit about, having lived there for >10 years.

NYC is clearly an expensive place... kind of. Manhattan obviously is really expensive but there are 4 other boroughs plus the Hudson Valley, eastern New Jersey and Long Island that are all within commuting distance.

Even with NYC prices, I content that lower-income workers are significantly better off in NYC than the Bay Area. Let me give you a concrete example. I just went onto Streeteasy and found a 2 bedroom apartment in Astoria for $295k [1]. It's a 30 minute commute to Midtown [2]

Even better, it's by public transit so no need for added expensive of buying, parking, maintaining and putting gas into a car.

You simply won't find anything equivalent in the Bay Area.

> Then again, those markets were booming even before tech workers moved to there.

I don't think that matches the data. Depending on what segment you look at prices in the Bay Area have almost doubled since 2012 [3].

[1]: https://streeteasy.com/building/21_27-33-street-astoria/sale...

[2]: https://goo.gl/maps/dvrUrWX88F1jM6gn9

[3]: https://www.bayareamarketreports.com/trend/3-recessions-2-bu...

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