If you were 22 with an engineering degree your have many benefits ahead. But you wouldn’t be buying a house for a very very long time, if ever, on just your salary without maybe a half million cash dow in SillyCon Valley. The rich foreign buyers from you- know- where have bid those old tract houses up to the million and two million dollar level, way way beyond what those nice big computer company pay levels. Times have changed. You can buy a house in the San Joaquin valley 120 miles away and join a “ van- pool” for five hours a day commuting. Even the Calif Highway Patrol has been quoted as saying they understand the problem and they try ( not always successfully it must be said) to give the long- distance commute vans full of engineers and computer programmers “ some space “ as they race into the Bay Area at 90 mph . The vanpoolers have their own culture, too. If one of them gets a speeding ticket, that engineer is relieved of his driving duty for a year so as to not jeopardize his license with a second ( likely “ augmented charges” ticket). People do adapt. But in previous times, they were able to adapt without having to compete with thousands of ( largely all - cash) wealthy bidders from foreign lands. It’s a major change in several American markets (Bay Area, parts of LA, NYC, etc). The young American engineers or whatevers can still live comfortably in Texas and many other parts of the country, however.
But I will make the best of it because the opportunity is good and I will have potential to earn much more. So I will need to learn to have some productive commutes because we are going to be talking up to 2 hours each way!
I spend most of the winter debating whether or not to take this opportunity as I said for years I never wanted to work in NYC. However, I refuse to allow myself to become a victim of the changing economy. I've posted here for years that people should be willing to relocate and go where the jobs are. So I'm basically following my own advice on this one.