California government, by its policies, is committing suicide. High taxes, bad regulations, lack of water and energy due to government action, terrible traffic due to refusal to build more freeways, high cost of living. San Fran may be the worst—with homeless everywhere, including your doorway, human and dog feces everywhere, crime unabated. The city has turned into New Delhi of the West Coast.
This is why folks and businesses are fleeing the city. The good news is that due to the Internet and cities in other States that are responsibility, you can have a good life in America—but then, San Fran no longer considers itself part of America.
“He has a point: According to Realtor.com, the median sales price of a home is just over $400,000, compared to $1.5 million in San Francisco. And overall San Francisco is 147% more expensive than Bentonville, according to Sperling’s Best Places, with home prices being the biggest factor in that.
While in San Francisco, Libin thought he had a high standard of living – “I was the CEO and I had a pretty good quality of life because I spent a lot of money,” he says – but he says his standard of living in Bentonville is actually much higher. “I have a higher quality of life and 100% of the people that work with me could afford to live the way I am,” says Libin.
By Alisa Wolfson, Market Watch, 5/14/22
The number of people leaving the Bay Area jumped 21% from March 2020 and September 2021, according to a report from University of California researchers. We talk to one man who left about why he did it. (Thinking of ditching your pricey city too? Check out the lowest mortgage rates you can get now here.)
Life as a CEO in San Francisco became increasingly stressful for Phil Libin, founder of the app mmhmm and former CEO and executive chairman of software company Evernote. After 15 years of city living, Libin decided it was time to wait out COVID-19 somewhere peaceful. So he packed his bags, told all of his employees they could work virtually forever and headed east to Bentonville, Arkansas — a place he’d passed through once or twice before, that’s known for its artsy vibe, beautiful outdoors and as the headquarters of Walmart.
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“I thought I’d go somewhere for a few months, so I got an Airbnb and then decided to stay,” says Libin, who hasn’t looked back on leaving the tech capital. The thing he misses the least? Traffic. “In San Francisco, I was Ubering everywhere. I looked back at my calendar and realized I was spending almost three hours every day in a car, going to the office or from meeting to meeting,” says Libin. Now, he works from home, or a few local places within walking distance. “My life here feels much more integrated. Things are much cheaper and money goes much further,” says Libin.
He has a point: According to Realtor.com, the median sales price of a home is just over $400,000, compared to $1.5 million in San Francisco. And overall San Francisco is 147% more expensive than Bentonville, according to Sperling’s Best Places, with home prices being the biggest factor in that.
While in San Francisco, Libin thought he had a high standard of living – “I was the CEO and I had a pretty good quality of life because I spent a lot of money,” he says – but he says his standard of living in Bentonville is actually much higher. “I have a higher quality of life and 100% of the people that work with me could afford to live the way I am,” says Libin. (Libin lets all of the mmhmm employees live wherever they want, and he says that about half of them who were in the Bay Area ended up moving.) “They can afford to eat at the same restaurants and be members of the same clubs,” says Libin.
| Dreaming of moving to a less pricey city, too? Here are some resources to help you make that decision: |
| • Housing: See what kind of a mortgage you can qualify for here, and look up what you might pay in rent here. |
| • Cost of living and other lifestyle factors: Compare the cost of living in a new city with your current city here, as well as things like taxes, crime and more. |
| • Healthcare: Look up how U.S. News ranks your the new state ranks in terms of healthcare here. |
| • Jobs: If your current job won’t let you work remotely, you can hunt for jobs via sites like Indeed and Glassdoor. |
| • Crime, education and other lifestyle factors: Look these up on Niche. |
Now, instead of living in an overpriced condominium, Libin has bought land and is planning to build a house. “I was in SF a few weeks ago for the first time in a year and I was shocked by what I used to put up with. I had forgotten about sitting in traffic. I would sit in the car for 90 minutes all the time and I thought it was okay. I never want to ask someone to do that,” says Libin.
Of course, the restaurants and culture of San Francisco are hard to beat, but it’s easy enough to travel from Bentonville, Libin says. “There are direct flights … It’s actually easier to fly domestically from here than SF because the airport is smaller and there’s no traffic. If I have to fly internationally to Asia or Europe, it adds a hop, but it’s worth it,” says Libin.
