I live in Denver right now, and while I've not lived in San Francisco as an adult, one clear area I'd say Denver wins on is cost of living. Six figures in Denver can go pretty far (owning a nice house or downtown apartment, vacations, private schools if you've got kids), whereas six figures in San Francisco almost certainly won't buy you that. I'm intentionally limiting this to San Francisco because, just as you can get more for your dollar by exploring the Bay Area and commuting, you can also get more for your dollar around Denver by living in some of the less affluent areas (e.g. Aurora, Erie) further out. Denver's got enough of a tech scene to support salaries in that range without fuss or lack of interesting work, so you're not harming your career prospects by moving here.
Denver's also got many other qualities worth mentioning. There's great weather and a laid back culture that is surprising given that many in Denver identify as "Midwesterners" - a term I associate with negative qualities that I've not found here. The populace is very educated, there's plenty of good beer to be had, if you're interested in such activity the mountains are a short drive away, and if you want to travel there's a national hub just east of the city. Boulder's close if a college-town atmosphere is more your scene, but Denver is a large enough area that you're not necessarily tied to what that atmosphere brings in the same way you might be in other towns (e.g. Charlottesville, VA). There's a decent public transportation system, relatively light traffic if you must drive somewhere, good food - it's got quite a lot to offer.
Really, there are only two things I dislike about living in Denver in particular: curiously small yards and the lack of easy access to the ocean. That said, the pros vastly outweigh the cons, and until I leave the country, Denver's where I plan to stay.
Quality of life is entirely subjective. My wife's quality of life depends heavily on how close she is to her family. My quality of life depends heavily on how diverse the population is (socioeconomic/racial/cultural).
Cost of buying a house doesn't matter to me because I'm fine renting if we can't afford to buy (we have 2 children and I value other things more than a house). My wife is the opposite.
This is the reason everybody doesn't want to live in the same place...thank goodness.
> Denver's got enough of a tech scene to support salaries in that range without fuss or lack of interesting work, so you're not harming your career prospects by moving here.
Doesn't that depend on what "tech" and "career" we're talking about?
> There's great weather and a laid back culture that is surprising given that many in Denver identify as "Midwesterners" - a term I associate with negative qualities that I've not found here.
"my neighbors aren't the hicks that I expected" is an "interesting" thing to say. (Then again, I don't think that "midwesterners" has negative connotations.)
BTW "six figures" covers 100k to 999k, so it's not all that useful for comparing real estate prices. (While SF is considerably more pricy than Denver, you don't have to spend $1M to get good stuff in SF.)
Note that SF is close to SV. What'd Denver close to that compares? How about the east bay?
I'd argue that SF is the tail, not the dog, albeit a damn fine tail. Even if you think that SF is "it", you can't discount the value of the surrounding areas in any comparisons.
Comments
I live in Denver right now, and while I've not lived in San Francisco as an adult, one clear area I'd say Denver wins on is cost of living. Six figures in Denver can go pretty far (owning a nice house or downtown apartment, vacations, private schools if you've got kids), whereas six figures in San Francisco almost certainly won't buy you that. I'm intentionally limiting this to San Francisco because, just as you can get more for your dollar by exploring the Bay Area and commuting, you can also get more for your dollar around Denver by living in some of the less affluent areas (e.g. Aurora, Erie) further out. Denver's got enough of a tech scene to support salaries in that range without fuss or lack of interesting work, so you're not harming your career prospects by moving here.
Denver's also got many other qualities worth mentioning. There's great weather and a laid back culture that is surprising given that many in Denver identify as "Midwesterners" - a term I associate with negative qualities that I've not found here. The populace is very educated, there's plenty of good beer to be had, if you're interested in such activity the mountains are a short drive away, and if you want to travel there's a national hub just east of the city. Boulder's close if a college-town atmosphere is more your scene, but Denver is a large enough area that you're not necessarily tied to what that atmosphere brings in the same way you might be in other towns (e.g. Charlottesville, VA). There's a decent public transportation system, relatively light traffic if you must drive somewhere, good food - it's got quite a lot to offer.
Really, there are only two things I dislike about living in Denver in particular: curiously small yards and the lack of easy access to the ocean. That said, the pros vastly outweigh the cons, and until I leave the country, Denver's where I plan to stay.
Quality of life is entirely subjective. My wife's quality of life depends heavily on how close she is to her family. My quality of life depends heavily on how diverse the population is (socioeconomic/racial/cultural).
Cost of buying a house doesn't matter to me because I'm fine renting if we can't afford to buy (we have 2 children and I value other things more than a house). My wife is the opposite.
This is the reason everybody doesn't want to live in the same place...thank goodness.
> Denver's got enough of a tech scene to support salaries in that range without fuss or lack of interesting work, so you're not harming your career prospects by moving here.
Doesn't that depend on what "tech" and "career" we're talking about?
> There's great weather and a laid back culture that is surprising given that many in Denver identify as "Midwesterners" - a term I associate with negative qualities that I've not found here.
"my neighbors aren't the hicks that I expected" is an "interesting" thing to say. (Then again, I don't think that "midwesterners" has negative connotations.)
BTW "six figures" covers 100k to 999k, so it's not all that useful for comparing real estate prices. (While SF is considerably more pricy than Denver, you don't have to spend $1M to get good stuff in SF.)
Note that SF is close to SV. What'd Denver close to that compares? How about the east bay?
I'd argue that SF is the tail, not the dog, albeit a damn fine tail. Even if you think that SF is "it", you can't discount the value of the surrounding areas in any comparisons.