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August 15, 2008
Life : Moving on?
Anne and I have been at our current address for several years and we are both thinking that the time has come to move someplace else in the area. There are many aspects of our situation we believe we are in a position to improve – in fact the problem is that there are too many different ways we could improve upon our living situation and it isn't clear which ones we should focus on.
First, there is the fact that we are still renting. Between the high cost of housing here in Silicon Valley (at its peak, a small 2 bedroom house could easily cost more than a million) and our investing our monies in things other than accumulating a down payment (travel, etc), we have never gotten around to buying a place of our own. However with the housing credit crisis, prices in the area are in near free fall (houses are selling for half of what people originally paid for them and two-thirds of the real estate listings are foreclosures) and our ability to set aside some money the past few years, buying is now a very serious option if we go to one of the bedroom communities in the area. It may mean a bit more of a commute to for me; but getting into the housing market near a low has a lot of advantages. We could also move closer to our church which would open up more social opportunities.
On the other hand, as I have explained before, Anne and I are really more city people. We like being able to walk to places. We like the abundance of cultural activities. We like the energy of city life. For the year I worked out of our San Francisco office, I hated my commute; but I loved the access I had to the benefits of the city. So the other clear option is to move up to the city. Prices are, of course, still higher up there and while we can afford the rent for a nice apartment in the city, it is not at all clear we could afford to buy a place there (at least not in a neighborhood we'd want to live in). My company would love me to work out of the home office in San Francisco, so that isn't an issue.
Personally, I'm somewhat ambivalent between these options. There are advantages of both but they are very different advantages. While I am not interested in moving just for the sake of moving (or for minor advantages – moving is too much of a pain for that); as long as we gain some significant advantages in the move, I am up for either option (or anything else). Anne and I are spending significant time praying about this to see if God has any preference in the matter, and in the mean time we are seriously investigating both options. Our current lease runs out at the end of October (although we have the option of going month to month after that), so we are looking to take action this Fall or Winter.
I should note that what Anne and I really want is to end up in London or back in Boston/Cambridge and we keep investigating opportunities that come up in those directions. So far, nothing has panned out. My company even has an office in London; but so far all of the openings for me there have been undesirable.
Posted by Steven at August 15, 2008 05:00 AM
