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[msparticularity]

Reality is that unless you have independent means, and/ or a SO with a very good job, a house is likely to be out of reach.

I am willing to bet that this is at least 90% of the problem. Established professionals looking to make a move are more than likely looking for the place where they want to spend the rest of their careers. I'll be they apply to your department because they'd love to live there and they imagine that they'll be able to get into a house, given their equity in an existing home. Then you and they get serious and they begin really checking into the real estate market, and it's all over.

I'm now shifting my advice slightly. I would suggest that you should look at these accomplished people who are applying and see if any are already "city folk" in a setting like yours, who seem to thrive on living in an apartment already. I also think you ought to discuss the real estate issue very clearly in your phone interviews to give people every opportunity to express concerns and/or opt out before the campus interview stage.

[janewales]

Reality is that unless you have independent means, and/ or a SO with a very good job, a house is likely to be out of reach.

I am willing to bet that this is at least 90% of the problem. Established professionals looking to make a move are more than likely looking for the place where they want to spend the rest of their careers. I'll be they apply to your department because they'd love to live there and they imagine that they'll be able to get into a house, given their equity in an existing home. Then you and they get serious and they begin really checking into the real estate market, and it's all over.

I'm now shifting my advice slightly. I would suggest that you should look at these accomplished people who are applying and see if any are already "city folk" in a setting like yours, who seem to thrive on living in an apartment already. I also think you ought to discuss the real estate issue very clearly in your phone interviews to give people every opportunity to express concerns and/or opt out before the campus interview stage.

The idea about looking for "city folk" is an excellent one. And it's true that when the real estate conversation happens early, it does produce (negative) results. Some years ago, we got permission to hire at the full professor level, and one of the people we were very interested in was initially also interested in us. Hu then looked at the cost of houses, and told us frankly that hu had a family, and could never consider moving without being able to get a house-- so took hu's application off the table at that point.

And once, a search at the senior admin level foundered because the chosen candidate was horrified to discover what it would cost to buy enough land for hu's 12 horses...

[altim]

So your real problem is that the salary you are offering is inadequate... ;-)

[janewales]

So your real problem is that the salary you are offering is inadequate... ;-)

Indeed. But adequate would probably be 200K+: deans, business school people, and of course the medical researchers make that kind of money (and far more, in the case of the medical people) here, but I'm in a humanities department, where we start people in the mid-80s, and (uncompressed) fulls make around 130-160. I think the university could help by building more university housing, but so far little sign of that. And senior admin doesn't necessarily see this as a problem, because it kind of counts on the positives of the location outweighing the negatives.

[oatmeal]

This is an interesting thread. To the OP, it would really be beneficial if you gave all the information about the jobs and searches and the conditions before the thread began. The fact that the university is an expensive area, does, as you just noted, make a difference. That would be nice for forumites to know. Cost of living is a very important issues for t-t faculty on the long list, because as someone noted, this might be the last move, or a major move for t-t faculty. For several SC I have served on, this was an issue. I hope you have good success.

[needmorecoffee]

This is a topic I can actually speak to, having made two vertical moves in the last four years. In the last move, I was in the incredibly fortunate position of having an offer in hand at an amazing university (one of the best in the world in my field) and being a campus finalist at three of the other top places in my field.  All of my advisers of course told me to play everyone off of each other for a better, perhaps even tenured offer. I knew I really wanted to be at the job I ended up accepting, for family, research and q of life issues, but the other places were good enough that I could have made the case for stretching the process out if I wanted. But this search wanted to wrap up early, not dither for three months while negotiations at other places, etc progressed. The chair of the search committee improved the offer a bit, but on the condition that I withdraw from the other searches; otherwise, he said, they would have to go back to their short list and bring more candidates to campus.  A bit of hardball, maybe, but it forced me to make a decision and was a good way for them to judge how serious I was about the position.  The other places appreciated not being played, as it opened the field to other deserving candidates. 

I am not a mercenary type and a terrible negotiator, but I think that most of us hate the stress of the process even when we seem to have struck gold.  I'm not sure what the propriety is of asking candidates if they would stay at their current institution or do something else if given a counter-offer.  But in my case I was glad that the search chair forced my hand. Having been on the other side of the fence the next year I think that most candidates send out signals that can be sensed or asked about more directly concerning whether or not the place they are applying to is a first choice, place holder, option of last resort, etc.

[disgruntled]

That DOES seem like a stunningly bad search failure rate. Nine out of ten? That really makes me think that maybe your are messing up in some ways, or something else is going on.  I've never heard of such bad luck.  Is there a cost of living vs. salary issue?  Even then, a 90% search failure rate, ouch!

Over the last 10 years, the vast majority of the searches in which I have been involved have failed.

[disgruntled]

adequate would probably be 200K+: deans, business school people, and of course the medical researchers make that kind of money (and far more, in the case of the medical people)

The vast majority of biomedical research is performed by PhDs working in medical schools, who on average are only slightly better compensated than their colleagues working at non-medical schools (in part because 12 month salaries are standard). In return for being paid somewhat more, you are expected to generate a significant portion, if not all, of your salary via grants, and tenure, which is generally only attainable if you work in a non-clinical department, often only means that a fraction of your salary is guaranteed for a couple of years while you attempt to get another grant.   

[ruralguy]

In my last job search while on the TT, nobody even asked why I was thinking of leaving, but my guess is they heard from letter writers who said it looked like an evil Dean was going to sink my tenure case. He did, but I un-sunk it anyway, and stayed. My wife ("just" girlfriend at the time) didn't like the new place at all when I interviewed, so once my tenure decision was reversed, I decided to stay at my current place. I don't know if they were ready to give an offer or not, because I withdrew from the search.

[pournelle]

Cost of living is a huge issue. I declined an offer from a top U for precisely that issue. I was a little taken aback, in fact, when I learned the numbers. It is striking that professorial salaries tend not to vary nearly as much with cost of living as do other professions.

[janewales]

Thanks, everyone-- long list is now set. About half are those with good tt jobs (we did eliminate some apps that sounded really generic); a few are ABD; and a few are un- or under-employed. We'll see what happens.

PS: On the question of medical research: our medical faculty really are paid an awful lot, and it's not grant tenure-- our salaries are all public, and I'm on some internal cttees that spell out where the money comes from, so I know this to be true. But of course I also know that other unis don't operate the same way...and then there's the business school!!