Sam Parr and Shaan Puri discuss why now favors sellers as remote work empties expensive cities. Shaan is selling his San Francisco home to move to the suburbs; younger professionals are fleeing to Austin and cheaper areas for space and lower costs. The shift raises questions about whether this migration is permanent or temporary.
like, is this gonna be the end of San Francisco being like the place?
And what's going— what's, what's, uh, what's the world like in Austin right now?
Crazy. Everything's crazy. I don't think it's as bad as San Francisco, but the world is crazy. I, I decided to— we got a new office down here, and so I rented a house to see everyone, and it's cool. Austin's a great city. What do you think's gonna happen to San Francisco? Do you think it's gonna— like, is this gonna be the end of San Francisco being like the place?
I think so, yeah. I think so for a couple reasons. You know, right now I'm selling my house.
Yeah, I was gonna say, your house looks different. You're decorating it to sell, aren't you?
Yeah, I am trying to sell my house right now, so it's about to go up for sale. I'm trying to move to the suburbs of the Bay Area. And so right now, because I'm doing that, I'm in the middle of the market and listening to people and hearing what are they— what's it like? Is the market hot to sell? Am I going to get a good price when I try to go look for something else? Is there a lot of stuff available or is it a bidding war? And just like you would expect, there's sort of a flight to space right now. And not like the SpaceX kind, I'm talking about like physical house space. People are—
de-urbanization.
Yeah, de-urbanization. People are leaving cities, they're leaving San Francisco for sure. So a lot of people who are in San Francisco are here because of the career opportunities. And now that the tech companies are saying, you know, either we are already remote or we're going remote or way more remote-friendly, and you work from home for the sort of foreseeable future, there's basically no— the premium, the extreme premium, I mean, like one bedroom for $4,000 a month, two $2,000, $6,000 a month type of rents to be in the city. And so when a studio condo is $1 million in the city, if you don't have to pay that, you're not going to. And so people want space, people want more affordability, and people want to be away from a whole bunch of other people from this virus. And so that is driving a lot of people out of the cities. Now, some people say, oh, that's just temporary. Personally, I don't think so. I don't think you can put the genie back in the bottle. Once the companies start letting you be remote, it doesn't matter where you're physically located. Why would you live in a more expensive area? Only if that lifestyle really appeals to you, which it will for like 20-something-year-olds, right, to be in cities. But right now you get the 20-something-year-olds and the 30-something-year-olds because the 30-something-year-olds are there for their career, and that's going to go away.
I feel like I've been in Austin for a week now. I'm going to stay for another week. Maybe I'll stay one more week down here. It is definitely happier, like the way of life is like it. I, for me and for many others, I understand why you'd be happier here. Um, like, dude, my new house, I got, I got a pool.
I'm like, a swimming pool? Like, what is this? This is amazing. That makes me happy just looking at a swimming pool.
I like it too. My thing though is I miss San Francisco. I want to come back. I do miss a little bit of a struggle. Um, I also miss the people. Uh, like, I hate the people and I love it.
Dangerous. San Francisco has like actual, you know, real problems with crime and homelessness and stuff like that. I don't think anybody wants that in where they're living. And so I think, you know, there's part of it that's the energy of a city. It's like, oh, I love being in New York, I love being in San Francisco, I'm around all these energizing, interesting, ambitious people, a bunch of single people. But then there's just like crime and homelessness and like extreme expenses that put a burden on you. And I think that's, nobody likes that.
I almost feel like, and not in a real way, but just because I can't think of a better word, a little homeless where I'm like, well, where the fuck is my place now? Like, where's my, like, You know, because I'm— yeah, you and I, we're not quite similar. You've done it more than I have, but me, to a lesser extent, I've lived in many different cities, and I finally felt like I had a home in San Francisco, and now I'm like, shit, like, it's way— like, damn, it's way different. And so, uh, I'm, I'm pretty sad about it, to be honest. Like, I've been like depressed over it. I'm also sad, obviously, about all the other shit's going on.
