[suryon]

The problem is they explicitly had to create something like Bay Area. They needed the engineers to be @ place. And the same can happen anywhere if you recreate the Bay Area.

Solution: remote work

Honestly...160k salaries for some sw roles are silly. But there is need for them because the costs of living are so high. That's plain bs.

[mason55]

> Honestly...160k salaries for some sw roles are silly

When you think about the value that a single SWE can create it's not that crazy

[eitally]

That's not a fair way of looking at it, though, from a business-owner's perspective. You need to look at the overall market, and you can find equally good developers in cheaper parts of the country for fractions (50-60%) of that cost.

[s73v3r]

It's an entirely fair way of looking at it. Just because other developers live in cheaper areas of the country doesn't change how much value a good developer is bringing to your business.

[shkkmo]

Solution:

Concentrate your tech workers in a area that isn't hostile to expanding the housing supply when needed.

[dragonwriter]

> Concentrate your tech workers in a area that isn't hostile to expanding the housing supply when needed.

Sure, you can try that.

But if the place doesn't offer the environmental features that make the Bay Area attractive, your going to have to offer them a premium to live there; lower housing costs may cover some of that so that you are only paying the same, but may not.

The Bay Area is expensive, more than anything else, because people want to live there.

[toomuchtodo]

Which narrows it down to Las Vegas, and Las Vegas is hell on Earth.

[acconsta]

New York manages

http://www.wsj.com/articles/construction-in-new-york-city-go...

[brobinson]

What don't you like about Las Vegas? What about the surrounding areas (Henderson, etc.)?

[iron_ball]

Correction: expanding the housing supply vertically.

[saryant]

Vegas, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta...

[toomuchtodo]

I'll give you Denver, definitely high quality of life in Colorado. Not Vegas, most definitely not Texas (save for Austin), not Phoenix, and Atlanta is nowhere near friendly unless you work from home and never need to get into a car.

Chattanooga is good, Nashville is good (but getting pricey), lots of space and smart people in North Carolina (Asheville or Raleigh Durham Research Triangle Park). I've heard good things about Des Moines (not a fan of the cold though).

At this point, its just masochistic for SF startups to require their tech staff to live in the area, and throw away so much of their income to landlords.

[saryant]

I lived in Houston and San Antonio for several years. I grew up in the Bay Area and I now live in Boulder. I've also lived in Wyoming and France.

Having sampled a fair number of places, I can safely say quality of life in Houston and San Antonio is far better than people on HN believe.

[toomuchtodo]

> I can safely say quality of life in Houston and San Antonio is far better than people on HN believe.

Unless you have a family. Texas schools are absolutely terrible.