This lady realtor told me that biotech companies have given new hires money for a down payment for a home in Bay area silicon valley which I guess was the starting bonus. She also said they gave them a second mortgage. With 200,000 salary, you qualify for about 1.6 or 1.7 million loan which would buy a 2 million house. Apparently the company will loan you another million so you can buy a $3 million house. This is to allow companies to hire more. I haven't heard much of this in my industry, other than executive packages get this all the time.
Which company is it?
She said Genentech, but other companies do it according to her. She sees the paperwork for a lot of transaction and gets to know a lot of the buyers.
This used to happen in Hong Kong
3M house requires 600k downpayment after tax (more than 1M pre tax), pretty generous signup bonus for 200k salary in your example.
I was assuming help on the down payment, not total down payment. Yep. But he could have been an executive. In which case 600K starting bonus is quite possible.
Its possible that its tied to a contract. For example if you leave within 2 year then you have to pay it all back.
UCSD gives down payment help to faculty. Something like 100-150k
Actually Santa Clara high school and grammar school was giving teachers the down payment and they were giving them a loan to get a house . Otherwise they couldn't get a house. I forget all the details.
TC or GTFO