Originally Posted by dkryan
Hello,
I am currently visiting friends for a long weekend at their condo in Mountain View, CA.
I have travelled quite a bit over the years, including NYC, Boston, D.C., San Diego, Sydney, Australia, London, and Europe. I thought I had a "feel" for the cost of living in those cities, including housing.
Why, then, was I shocked when the Uber driver in Santa Rosa, in her late 50s, told me she was paying rent of $1,600 per month for a one bedroom, one bath, 590 sq. foot apartment?
With on street parking included! Doh! Sign me up!
And that shock came before I imbibed at Russian River Brewing with a couple of Pliney the Younger.
I know, what did my friends pay for that MV condo? Don't ask.
I know it's Silicon Valley but what really surprised me was the number of campers that were parked along certain streets. Why? I was told those campers belonged to Silicon Valley workers who could not afford housing in this area (Mountain View and Palo Alto).
Mt. View is a great city; I work there. Google is everywhere in Mt. View. "The Google..."
There are dozens of those camper homes parked on El Camino Real on the gorgeous Stanford University border.
Truth be told, we do have a housing crisis in Silicon Valley. While it is certainly nice to have such incredible equity, when our Police Officers, teachers, etc. cannot afford to live here, that's a crisis.
And I don't work nearly as hard as they do, I'm sure.
That's called the market.