Housing maybe, although not the stuff I have imagined in my head. Everything else is really expensive in hawaii though because of shipping costs and lack of scale.
Cost of stuff is only important if you spend all of your money on stuff. With a tech salary, the cost of food going up 15% should be nothing compared to the rent you will save.
You think the cost of food is only 15% more? That's funny.. still not enough to offset the cost of housing in SF though. Been looking at moving out to San Jose (to work in Los Gatos, that's expensive to live in), and need to make about 75% more to offset the cost of housing and taxes than I do in Phoenix.
I totally understand why some large companies would put their IT hubs in Texas or Arizona now. Relative to the cost of living, we have it pretty good here.. I don't want to be outside in June, July or August though.
We had a rattlesnake sun bathing in our back yard, we've killed 2 of those centipedes in our garage and 2 or 3 scorpions in the house (always look in your shoes).
There's also the red ants, vicious little creatures then of course the drought years followed by a flood year or two.
What are you talking about? I was pointing out how expensive SF is and how you might hit a 15% higher food cost in Hawaii than SF. But that will be offset by the massive amount you will save in rent.
Okay, but if you're only talking about SF then that's pretty silly. Because there are parts of the bay area that are much cheaper although I get that even they are expensive. But if you're paying to live in SF proper or Palo Alto proper you're paying a premium for either a low commute or to be around other tech people or both. You can find places that are affordable in plenty of parts of the east bay.
