[corin_]

Central London is really the only place in Britain that makes the Bay area look OK in comparison.

According to Numbeo.com's cost of living comparisons, SF is a bit more expensive to rent in than London, and a bit cheaper to buy in. But of course, these are very generalised/averaged numbers, not looking at anything as specific as "the bay area".

  SF
  Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre 			3,321.03 $ 	
  Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre 		2,580.00 $ 	
  Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre 		6,393.33 $ 	
  Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre 		4,928.57 $ 	
  Price per SQM to Buy Apartment in City Centre 	14,819.28 $ 	
  Price per SQM to Buy Apartment Outside of Centre 	9,543.88 $ 
  
  London
  Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre 			2,510.87 $
  Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre 		1,700.43 $
  Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre 		5,099.81 $
  Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre 		2,985.64 $
  Price per SQM to Buy Apartment in City Centre 	23,868.09 $
  Price per SQM to Buy Apartment Outside of Centre 	12,413.72 $

Obviously there are specific stupidly-expensive areas in London, and indeed outside London in the UK.

[jzwinck]

Either I have a very different idea of what London's "City Centre" is, or the numbers above for London look quite low. That said, for some people, Zone 4 is "central" and for others only Zone 1 is. Curious how the SF numbers compare in this regard.

[abritinthebay]

Traditionally Zone 1-2 is central.

Anyone who calls Zone 4 central is deluded.

[nemo44x]

Keep in mind that the same job often pays considerably less in London than it does in San Francisco. And I'm not referring to taxes but actual salaries. I've known quite a few folks who have taken pay cuts when moving to London and folks who have received considerable pay increases moving to a major city like San Francisco or NYC from London.

[abritinthebay]

Partly that's due to competition for the small pool in SF being larger. There's a lot of people looking for fewer jobs in London (tech especially). In SF - reverse.

[nemo44x]

I think it goes for other industries too. My wife who works in finance and accounting makes quite a bit more in NYC than she did in London, even for similar roles in similar industries.

But you may have a point in that London being the only game in town has a lot of competition among the workforce. Also, I believe it costs much more to employ someone there and there are many more protection for employees. For instance, it is very difficult to fire someone in the UK and it is not that way in the USA.

[abritinthebay]

That's also true, though I doubt it makes that much of a difference to salaries.

Simply put: I could quit my job today and have a month of interviews lined up in a few days in SF. In London? Not enough companies to sustain that.

That leads to companies competing for talent on wages.

London is great but it never really got a tech boom like SF did.