Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

Re:Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, a... by scarface74 on Tuesday April 02, 2019 @08:45AM (#19553424)

But even $250K in total comp wouldn’t allow my family to live the lifestyle that we can live in many major metropolitan areas in the US that have a much lower cost of living where just your commodity full stack developer with a few years of experience can make $135K - $160K.

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Re:Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, a... by freyir on Thursday April 04, 2019 @06:44PM (#19577842)

Wouldn't it? What major metropolitan areas are you talking about specifically?

$250K is FANG compensation for an engineer with a few years of experience. According to NerdWallet cost of living calculator, equivalents are:

    Manhattan:    $314K
    Los Angeles:  $191K
    Boston:       $196K
    Chicago:      $157K
    Miami:        $152K
    Denver:       $149K
    Philadelphia: $146K
    Minneapolis:  $139K
    Atlanta:      $134K
    Des Moines:   $117K

So $250K in San Francisco should afford similar lifestyle as in other major cities paying $135K-$160K.

But a senior-level position in FANG should be closer to $350K and above. I think that becomes much harder to match as a commodity developer outside the Bay Area (it'd be $205K in Philly, for instance). And even if you did match it, and you're able to sock away X% of your income a year in both cities, the FANG salary leaves you with many more dollars in your bank account in a few years. You could always leave the Bay Area at some point, and spend those dollars in a low CoL area.

I'm not saying it's worth it. The Bay Area has a lot of downsides. San Francisco has become a crime-ridden cess pool in recent years. Commutes are horrendous if you don't live near work. And many tech companies in the Bay Area pay much less than FANG compensation (and I know from experience), which really makes it hard to stomach. But from a purely financial standpoint, it seems like the FANG developers are doing pretty well.

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Re:Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, a... by scarface74 on Friday April 05, 2019 @07:56AM (#19581617)

I have a house in the burbs in Atlanta - 5 bedroom/3.5 bath, 3000 square feet, new build.

It’s in a top rated school district, 30 minutes away from where I work and we paid $335K for it back in 2016. Now, it would probably be around $385K. How much would a similar setup cost in San Francisco?

We bought it with the 5% down that the builder required to start, but we ended up even getting some of that back when we used an FHA loan that required only 3.5% down.

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Re:Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, a... by freyir on Saturday April 06, 2019 @05:00AM (#19589929)

Yes, the housing supply in SF and the peninsula is not good. If you want a new build or lots of space, it is not the place to be.

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