The comparison is 2million in Palo Alto for an attached townhouse ~2200sqft. You might be able to get an 800k house in a bad neighborhood (east palo alto) that's 1100 sqft.

Friend in Buffalo is buying a house for 120k, difference is extreme.

> Friend in Buffalo is buying a house for 120k, difference is extreme.

Buffalo is an extreme example, both nationally and inside Buffalo itself. The most expensive single family homes in the city are ~$1.5MM [0]. These are mansions built in the early 1900s right on a beautiful park. Alternatively, you can buy an almost condemned house in a bad neighborhood for ~$5,000 [1]. People actually live in those places.

[0] http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/82-Meadow-Rd-Buffalo-NY-14...

[1] http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/647-Norfolk...

Buffalo is a rust belt place that has been in the wane for decades.

A decade ago, they were razing 50 houses a month.

And I'll bet the average salary and job prospects in Buffalo are reflective of the low house prices.

If you live in rural Kentucky, housing in many parts of Florida would be considered absurd. Comparing costs of living in wages against locations is apples and oranges. You can get a home with 2000sgft in Montana with 50 acres for the same price as a cookie cutter home in a subdivision in North Carolina. Housing is based on numerous economic factors including wage and comps (what other people have been willing to spend on similar homes in the area)

The difference between the housing market in the Bay and almost anywhere else is an extreme caricature of your analogy, though. At some point all analogies fail to provide an adequate description, but yours fails almost out of the gate here, in my opinion.

It doesn't scale though. I live in SD (moving to Austin) and the cost of living to income ratio is simply better elsewhere.

Absolutely. We're looking to move as well. Can't handle the cost of living here in SD.

$600,000 for a house in California sounds pretty cheap to me too. That's the price of an apartment in Toronto and even senior software developers here are lucky to clear US$80,000 a year.

Toronto dev here. How many years qualify you as senior in the city? On average how likely is it to score six-figures (CAD) within let's say 4 years?

Definitely not staying here long term. Gonna try to move down-south where developers are better compensated and cost of living isn't so much.

Yeah but it's well known the housing market in Toronto is crazy too...

If you look on realtor.ca, you can find many many apartments in Toronto for less than half of that.

It is, which is a big part of my decision to move from SD to Austin in two weeks. I make the same salary and cost of living is ~30% less.

You could buy a huge house for that here in Bend, and we're probably at or near the top of the latest real estate cycle.

It's almost as dry as San Diego here in theory, but a heck of a lot colder in the winter.

McMansions are pervasive in all states/cities. And their overpricing is a common. It's not California, it's the American economy, built upon housing.