Wow. Mine is very high. Just glad I don’t live in Long Island where the rates are even higher. Remember, it’s not just the rate. The delivery fees and taxes are higher than the rate per kwh!
The Guardian: "Scraping by on six figures? Tech workers feel poor in Silicon Valley's wealth bubble"
" Dinky places mean reduced costs for utilities."
Not really. A dinky place might have electric everything versus gas water etc. in a nicer place. We pay less for utilities in our nice house than we paid when we lived in our small apartment. Plus, the insulation in a dinky place can be questionable - heat is still needed in winter months in SF.
Our electricity is $.35/kwh, which I believe is the highest in the nation. Fortunately, we installed solar (our state has the highest rooftop solar % in the nation). Before installing it, our very modest 1000 square foot home was about $100/month or less for electricity. Now we pay $10 or so every month service fee, so that we can stay connected to the grid. We tend to generate more with our 9 panels than we consume so we net out at close to 0 energy consumed over the year. We have no heat nor A/C nor gas and only one fridge. When the kids are home, the electric bill doubles (lots of computer & electronics use) and we consume more electricity than we produce and use up some of the surplus we have with the electric company’s net metering system. Our electric company will not buy back electricity from customers, but will give you credit for when you need to consume more than you produce at a later point in the year.
Anyway, it is crazy when prices get so high that it is difficult for folks to afford housing. This is a chronic problem in our state and only getting worse as people buy second homes or decide to retire here or flee to a slower pace of life. The housing prices greatly outpace incomes here and many other places. When you’re a student or a young person, you can have room mates but when you are raising a family it gets more problematic. High housing prices in HI makes it difficult for our young people to return and raise their families too.
I think it doesn’t matter where you live or how much you make. There are always a segment that thinks they are barely making ends meet. When they’re not…
You can laugh all you want, but 160K is not a lot of money here for a family assuming you don’t already own a home. 160K for a young, single tech worker is a different story since they can share an apartment and expenses with others. The real estate prices are insane. And some of us were born here, have extended family here, and aren’t really looking to move away. Oh, and as for health insurance, we pay more than $1K/month not including our $75 copay to see a doctor and our prescription drugs (and yes, this is three times what we were paying a few years ago.) And that is an employer based program. This is just not a cheap place to live.
I think many people who have been here a long time have no idea what it’s like for someone to move here and try to find a place to live. We bought a long time ago, but would have trouble finding a home today. I know plenty of people who buy in the East Bay and try to commute, but the commute is horrendous and they complain that their commute is too stressful. Salary is all relative depending on cost of living, although I’ll agree that whoever is complaining at $700K a year is being ridiculous.
@deb922, you’re right, but it does make it tougher when housing prices greatly outstrip wages. Our neighbor had a job offer in SV for a very high position. He and his spouse and their kids went to investigate and decide whether or not to accept it. They noted the higher salary, cost of comparable houses and schools for their Ds, and other expenses. Ultimately, in spite of the huge bump in salary, they chose NOT to accept that job and decided to remain in HI because the higher salary on paper would not compensate for all the increased expenses associated with living in SV. It was an eye-opener for them!
I realize that, ucb… my comment was more of a general observation about costs in SV. A fancy-pants daycare all the young lawyers in my neighborhood use costs under $1500
yes, complaining at $700k is silly. And the million dollar couple who can’t find a house…no sympathy. They can afford $2m+ home. I’m sure they will.
Housing in SV is insane and I think someone could do better living elsewhere, but feeling poor is ridiculous. For one, almost everything else you buy from clothes to electronics to cars to travel to restaurants costs about the same no matter where you live. For another, if you live in a place with good public transportation, or where you can bike to work, it’s much easier to get by with 1 car for the family or maybe even no car at all. California has the best public university system in the country, so there’s less need to send your kids OOS or to a private school for college. Last, I think a lot of people have no clue what middle class is. The median gross income of a full time worker with a BS is only about $60k. If you can net more than that after taxes and rent, you’re doing better than most people.
Yes, that was us in 2008. DW and me both in high tech. With D1 going to 1st grade in 2008, we decided to leave.
DW never worked after we moved to Austin. With single income, we are living way better life.
There’s nowhere to sprawl. SiliconValley is a valley with a bay in the middle of it, surrounded by mountains that are either public land or have (for good reason) 5 acre or bigger zoning. The flat land is all built up. The answer is denser housing, but NIMBYs won’t allow denser housing.