Barton's Blog

Its only a little more than two weeks until we move into our new home here in Austin.  For the past four months the five of us have been living in a three story town home (not very easy when you have three kids under 3).  We've only unpacked about half our stuff and havent done anything to make it homey since we knew that our new home would be available soon.

Im still blown away by what we get for our money here in Austin.  We could never have afforded a house like this in the Bay Area at this time.  Not only that but this house is half the price and twice the size of the house we had in San Jose (in fact our house here in Austin is larger than our entire lot in San Jose).   Im amazed that a disparity like this can still exist and that it has not been arbitraged away or at least brought much closer.  Sure it gets really hot in Austin and there is more industry in the Bay Area, but 4X the cost for real estate!?

It will be interesting to see twenty years from now how housing prices between the two areas compare.  Im sure Austin's prices will continue to rise, particularly with all of us high tech refugees from California.  What I wonder is when will this exodus from the Bay Area be enough to cause a reality check for Silicon Valley and produce a correction?  This same situation is true for commercial real estate and this fact hasnt been lost on on either our CEO or CFO who realize that holding a large amount of land in the Valley is one of the poorest uses of the company's capital.   As a result, Sun has been consolidating campuses and actively supporting more people to work from home or re-locate.  It seems like each week Im hearing about another co-worker who is leaving the Bay Area for a greater affordability and a better quality of life.

The house we never could have afforded in the Bay Area. 

Pau for now...