JG,
I would wager that the life sciences salaries at the hot startups and established firms in Cambridge and vicinity are mich higher than SD. For christ sakes MA General and Harvard Medical School are here! Boston is THE place anywhere in the world for life sciences. Why isn’t your firm here, recruiting all the hot talent from Harvard and MIT????
My home is worth maybe 20%-30% more (baked into the range I gave) than when I bought it 4 yrs ago, looking at recent comp sales. The bubble happened in very low income areas and the super snooty inside 128 suburbs ($1M-up). I live in a more “modest” area that still sports 65% of all residents 25 and older with a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree, so it’s a commuter suburb for professionals. And you know what? I laugh to the bank every month with my $1500 mortgage payment. Guess what salary/price ratio I used when buying it? A lot less than the average SD/OC/LA’er. The damn house could go to zero and I’d be fine, as it is a cheap, nice place to live that puts me squarely within the third best job market (after NYC and SF/SJC) in the country. That is my point. And I don’t need to worry about selling it; my company has a gold-plated relocation package.
Tongue in cheek comments aside, SD is the place that looks economically distressed given the RE bubble bursting. The Boston job market is sizzling currently, and I’ve never known it to have much of a percentage dedicated to RE, especially compared to SoCal.
It looks like you were able to escape the grind of a Big 5 accounting career and land a CFO role. Good for you. Accounting is a crappy career. I know other guys that did that – some had to get the MBA, some not, but all of them couldn’t wait to get out of public accounting. I am very fortunate that my job is a blast.
I’m no Pats fan, but it was damn funny watching the Charger faithful’s looks of disbelief in that game. I grew up in L.A. and have always been a Raider fan, which means that both of our teams got screwed by New England and Brady in recent years (the Tuck rule?)
So I’ll enjoy my time here. It’s been great professionally and fiscally. Sadly my next gig will likely take me to the Bay Area, where you’ll still struggle to find anything decent for under $1M in a nice town.
