Tradeoffs
When I was talking to Nick tonight, he mentioned that he and Marc, my two roommates when I worked for Microsoft, are now looking for houses near Redmond. The news didn’t come as a huge surprise, since Microsoft pays well and real estate in suburban Seattle is rather inexpensive, but it still prompted me to sit back and reflect for a moment.
All three of us graduated from Stanford at the same time. We started at Microsoft within a month of each other. It’s worked out well for them, but the move up there didn’t work out quite as well for me. When I came back to Apple a bit over a year ago, I knew I’d be making some sacrifices in exchange for being back in a state where I wanted to live and at a company where I wanted to work. One of those sacrifices was to give up any chance of buying a house any time soon.
Of course, I was well aware of that from the moment I first thought about moving back down here. It’s nothing new. But hearing that my ex-roommates are buying houses really brought the point home. Life is full of tradeoffs like this, and in this case I don’t regret my decision one bit. I’m a lot happier down here, close to lots of friends and working with great people on what I hope will be a great product. I wouldn’t trade that and my monthly rent payments for a house and a job in Redmond. I’m sure I’ll be ever so slightly jealous, though, when I visit Marc and Nick after they’ve moved and get to see the places they’ll own….
Reese Said,
February 16, 2004 @ 10:04 am
Depressing isn’t it. When I was at school in Ann Arbor, I actually owned my apartment, ending up making 50% after 3 years. Chances of doing that around here… ZERO.
Although as depressing as it is I am still trying to find something around here. Rent is evil.
Laura Said,
February 16, 2004 @ 1:51 pm
I think I know that feeling. Since Alexei and I got back to the Bay Area, I’ve never once doubted that the move was the right thing for us, but I suspect it’s nearly impossible for a choice like that *not* to come at some kind of cost. I still get seriously wistful thinking about a lot of the things I left behind in St. Louis. In the end, though, it comes down to figuring out what’s most important–and from an entirely selfish viewpoint, I’m certainly glad you didn’t pick cheap real estate.
Nick Said,
February 16, 2004 @ 8:31 pm
For the record, I’d like to object to the use of the words, “relatively inexpensive,” without appending, “compared to here,” after it.
Housing here is still rather expensive compared to many, many other places (for example, Portland, where I grew up).
–Nick
Anonymous & Coward Said,
February 17, 2004 @ 2:02 pm
Maybe you should have added this at the end of text:
“Out of desperation, then, I’d like to ask a favor of anyone reading this. Head on over to the form, sign up by Wednesday night, and if you get homes, I’ll gladly pay for them (plus your cost of sending them to me, and maybe something extra unless there are way too many).”
It could work
Anyway, another reason why I stop dreaming about working in the valley.
lilly Said,
February 23, 2004 @ 1:10 pm
Yeah, it’s weird. My mom has been telling me to find something to buy (I’m NOT EVEN out of school yet) rather than setting my money on fire in the rent hole and I just laughed it off. Or argued it off. I don’t even know where I’ll be in two years. There’s a good chance it’ll be in grad school again and where? Who knows? But taking a job offer and thinking about the $$$ I’ll be getting for my labor all of a sudden makes me look at it differently. Especially since going into academia, if I decide to do so, will make owning anything in the bay area impossible. I’m thinking about getting a PhD in things that probably have like 5 faculty positions open in the country so maybe that Iowa real estate will be feasible.
Rent burninates my salary!