This depresses me. After so many years working in the also-ran SV companies, my grand total of realized money from stock options and RSUs is about $40,000. 
But I am sure many more people are like me, working in the 2nd and 3rd tier companies for a salary. The examples you quote of people with 20-50M is stock are the 0.1 percenters of SV
But, of course, that Los Altos home was bought for 8.5M by one of those 0.1 percentersâŚ
âDirector of Productâ is not IC though. What job does the Tesla person do?
yes you are right, the tesla person is high up in BD. so yes, the original theory holds, its mostly exec types.
Yet another overpriced home in Los Altos. Interesting listing description on Redfin - they were openly trying to advertise it to a Googler, itâs as if lesser mortals who donât work for FAANG should not bother to put in a bid. And fair enough, only a FAANG hotshot would throw $3.8M+ for a small 1600 sq ft home
Yeah. Weird description trying to lure a Googler with Hey Siri⌠Anyways Los Altos homes are crazy sold price and wonder how this will sustain.
Wonder what is wrong with the following house â been sitting for a while and now there is a price reduction
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Saratoga/19801-Braemar-Dr-95070/home/1231140
On the other hand, Los Altos market seem to be in a different world. Cannot believe that the following went above listing:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Altos/1945-Fallen-Leaf-Ln-94024/home/1178210
This Los Altos property basically sold for just land value. Whoever bought it will instantly tear down the old shack and build a new palace. They were willing to pay $3.1M just for the land - shows how wealthy the buyer is
Itâs at whatâs called a T-junction. Chinese and Indian (from certain regions) buyers will not buy such properties.
Interesting. Not sure if T-junction would play a big role in this market. Wonder if these houses near the Saratoga Creek are in some sort of NHS zone (liquefaction or fill soil with movement, âŚ).
But this is near a high voltage power line / tower and not in a super desirable part of Los Altos.
I wouldnât either. Someone could drive straight into your house.
Someone here once schooled me the difference between North Los Altos (north of El Monte) vs South. Only North LA is the real Los Altos.
Iâm curious why North Los Altos appreciation is outpacing neighboring areas. The downtown is getting some cool new developments. Maybe thatâs the reason?
Individual contributor at FAANG makes around $150-$200k per year salary + roughly 50%-100% of salary in RSU. After 5 years, can make $1M in base RSU. Using AAPL as example, stock went up 5x from $30 in 2015 to $150 today. GOOG is also up 5x from $500 in 2015 to $2800 today. So that appreciate $5M in stocks. And if 2 working couples, that can double. (RSU vests over 4 years. But this is just an example. Can also assume some workers have being there 5-10 years). And this is for IC, and there are many tens-of-thousands of them.
Managers make maybe 1.5 to 2x of that. Around every 3-5 individual contributors, there is a Manager.
Sr Managers make >2x of that. Around every 10 individual contributors, there is a Sr Manager.
How about other companies? Maybe IC wonât make as much in stocks, but there are Sr and Directors, Sr Directors etc. If you combine all the Directors in other tech companies, probably similar order as IC at FAANG.
That description is hilarious. Hats off to the realtor for thinking outside the box. Not that the realtors have to do much work to sell a house in past 20 years.
I would say all the home buyers are very sane with their money. And it is very rarely overpriced. It might be overpriced for you, but there are many people who can afford and willing to pay.
This is what I have being seeing in past 20 years. Yes, the demand fluctuates. It goes from crazy before dot.com bubble, before subprime mortgage bubble, after mortgage bubble issue, and now after COVID. During hot times, there are 5-20 bidders and houses are going 10+% over previous market value. And even during âdownturnâ, some areas did not depreciate; just 1-2 bidders and sales are at market value.
I remember in 2012, market was picking up. Every house bid on is more expensive than the previous week. And seems every potential homebuyers who were idle during slowdown are now all in the market at same time. We cannot see sales price as that comes out later. But from the bidding, it is clear the people who have lost week after week now realize they need to bid higher to even have a chance. Just in 5 months, market went up 20-30%.
And another surprising thing is the cash offers. We encountered a lot of cash offers. Many claim these are foreign buyers from China. But I donât think so. Just at open houses, talking to realtors, bidding, etc, I suspect many of these cash buyers are local families.
.
Just to clarify,
Not referring to fresh grads, right?
This âAfter 5 years, can make $1M in base RSU.â mean aggregate for 5 years, right?
Thought those companies have flat structure, sound tall to me.
In a team of 10 SWEs, 1 SM, 2 Mgrs, 7 ICs ⌠almost 1 SM/Mgr for 2 ICs.
Your suspicion is correct, mostly local. The trick is to use HELOC to buy cash, apply mortgage later. Use mortgage to pay back HELOC.
Thanks for the informative post.
Rightly said. There is genuine growth after the slow down and looks like it is going to continue. Interesting times.
Can you explain this? My friend who bought townhome in SJ was under jumbo + HELOC. He changed HELOC(3.3%) to ARM 7/1(2.625%) last week. Is that a right strategy?
.
Personally I didnât employ this strategy. I am aware of this because my realtor told me many buyers do this. I did ARM in early days when I donât have much money⌠nowadays I go for 30-yr fixed.
Clearly, Bay Area is full of these successful and wealthy people ready to buy fancier homes, as this Mercury News article seems to suggest
This is for more experienced ICs. Yes, combined RSU approximate value over 5 years.
What I find is opposite for the larger companies. I donât know about SW. For HW, it is definitely not flat. There are a lot of managers needed to manage all those employees. For instance, start with VP with 1500 to 2000 employees. And rough estimate that there are 4-5 reports for every level, or each level is divided by 4 to 5,.
VP: 1500-2000 (VP oversees this many employees)
Sr Dir: 300-500
Dir: 75-100
Sr Mgr: 20-30
Mgr: 4-8
IC: 1 