>By that measure rents are unaffordable even to SV workers.
The rents in MV are $4K ballpark for 2/2 which is a minuscule part of all those $300-600K+ compensations around. Today for tech workers the situation is much more affordable, be it rent or buy, than it was 20 years ago when i first came here. 13 years ago i bought townhouse at the peak for almost 6x my salary back then at 5.25%, and it was a bit of uncomfortable stretch. Today a tech worker for 6x yearly comp at 3% can very comfortably afford a pretty nice house here. In the recent years a bunch of tech neighbors and acquaintances have already bought their second [town]house. Of course the tech workers with these money sloshing around have been the major factor making it much less affordable for everybody else.
Yeah that's really low. I just moved to Hamburg as a postdoctoral researcher and our international housing office said to expect to spend around 60% of our salary on rent. Then again rent here includes heating which changes it a little
Don’t compare things like that. 60% of your income is going straight into funding someone else’s investments and you have no choice but to pay. It is a sickness, a malaise of society.
I'm not sure what you're getting at. Sure, I don't like landlords as a "profession", but on the other hand it is not unaffordable, which was the point in the article. It is a mistake to conflate whether or not it is morally okay to whether or not it is affordable. Even if it were affordable that doesn't mean that it is okay. Then again, in terms of my own life and living situation, I honestly can say I do not mind renting.
The rents in MV are $4K ballpark for 2/2 which is a minuscule part of all those $300-600K+ compensations around. Today for tech workers the situation is much more affordable, be it rent or buy, than it was 20 years ago when i first came here. 13 years ago i bought townhouse at the peak for almost 6x my salary back then at 5.25%, and it was a bit of uncomfortable stretch. Today a tech worker for 6x yearly comp at 3% can very comfortably afford a pretty nice house here. In the recent years a bunch of tech neighbors and acquaintances have already bought their second [town]house. Of course the tech workers with these money sloshing around have been the major factor making it much less affordable for everybody else.