Cost of living is pretty high in Silicon Valley - NY Times

This article in the NY Times about how it’s tough being just a millionaire in Silicon Valley (Summary: Having $2-3 million won’t make you secure) reminds me of something that happened a few weeks ago. I was talking to someone who had always lived in California and I casually noted that I do occasionally think about moving back “home” where the cost of living is cheaper - you know, New York.

That’s when I usually get the look.

It’s the same look I’d imagine I would get if I told the other person “Why yes, Elvis, Bigfoot, President Lincoln and I had lunch at French Laundry on Thursday. Big Foot is a big fan of Thomas Keller.” This has happened a few times so if you’re reading this and wondering if I’m talking about you, the answer is “not really”:).

Part of the problem stems from the fact that when you say New York, most people think of things like these:

Most people who visit New York only ever see Manhattan - and that’s certainly understandable. But there’s more to the New York area than just $28 million dollar penthouses over looking Central Park. Obviously, people other than Robert Deniro, Glen Close, Spike Lee, and others live there. After all, Joey Buttafuoco wasn’t living next door to Yoko Ono. First, there’s the 4 other boroughs that comprise New York City: Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the Bronx. After that, there’s the rest of New York: Westchester, Yonkers, Long Island (Nassau, Suffolk). And of course, there’s parts of Connecticut and Northern New Jersey.

As the NY Times points out in this article, people in Silicon Valley do get paid more than nationally, no doubt about it - but the cost of living is also a lot higher:

Now when I say that NY is cheaper, I’m stretching the truth a little for shock value. In reality, it’s probably about equal. This cost of living calculator says that if you earned $100k in the Valley, you’d only need to earn $96k in Long Island. That’s really not a big difference, but it’s a difference that should be noted. Among other things, the state income tax in NY is only 6.85% vs 9.3% in California. Sale tax is about the same, though if you schlep over to New Jersey, you can buy clothing sales tax free.

Of course, the biggest difference is cost of housing: you can buy a 4br/2.5ba on a 6k sqft lot for $779k (with finished basement) in Great Neck, NY, or a 3br/2ba on a 5k sqft lot for $788k in Cupertino, CA. I picked these two cities because they’re almost equivalent reputation-wise for school districts in the local area (Great Neck South was #42, and Monta Vista was #89). One caveat though is that property taxes in NY are a bit higher, and are not “locked in” like in California. And if you’re a renter, you’ll pay far more for rent as the ratio between mortgage and rent is only 1.5x there vs 2x here.

At the end of the day, though while living in the NY metro area may be slightly cheaper, will have more cultural/culinary/entertainment attractions and institutions, and may have better public schools, the fact is that your likelihood of becoming a millionaire via IPO is pretty non-existent compared to being in the Valley. That and I’m loving this (relatively) humidity free weather.

Food for thought.