You would take a pay cut and there are many in Atlanta who would still complain that you are making too much and be thinking about how they could move your job to a low cost country. I've had conversations with startups "leaders" in Atlanta where they have expressed this sentiment.

hey lance! ha

I left ATL for SF last year and I had many similar conversations while I lived there.

ATL Founder > What do you mean you are charging $100/hr? I can pay 5 shitty developers in India for that price.

SF Founder > We are on a pretty tight budget. The best we can offer you is $140k/yr + 0.7% equity.

yup, seen the same thing!

You are all over this thread shitting on everything Atlanta. Sounds like you just didn't get hired at a place you like and are bitter. That place made the right choice.

It sounds like this is a throwaway troll account.

I'll stick to the valley and just have roommates then.

According to this CNN Money calculator you would only need to make $114k here to match a 200k salary on SF. Even less if you didn't want to live downtown. The housing costs are listed at 75% less than SF!

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

And according to Glassdoor, average Software Engineer salary in Atlanta is $72k:

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/atlanta-software-engineer...

Neither is very scientific but I don't think it's such an obvious win.

Glassdoor isn't a good reference. For one, the list you linked to looks like a bunch of consultants salaries which is usually lower than average for entry level positions.

I'm only a few years out of school and almost at the 72k level with much room to grow in salary at my current job and grade level.

Those cost of living things never make sense to me. Housing isn't the only cost in our lives. When I want to buy a car, computer, cell phone, or vacation, they cost exactly the same whether I live in California or Georgia (ok, sales tax will vary slightly, but that's it). Whenever I've done the math on moving to a cheaper area, it has not worked - even with cheaper housing, the vastly lower wages leave me with materially less money to spend on the other stuff that's not cheaper.

Material things are not cost of living!

You gotta compare apples to apples. I'd rather not have the majority of my paycheck go to housing. I'd rather buy than rent and I don't see that happening anywhere I've looked in Cali.

For the amount of profit I would have made off of merely buying a house and holding for a few years if I had stayed in the Bay Area, I would be able to buy most of the houses I'd consider with just cash. You really can't get that kind of ludicrous cash making opportunity if 1. your ceiling on pay in your profession is capped firmly leaving you insufficient investment capital 2. your local economy is not booming with lots of investors to drive up asset prices. Nobody's going to buy a middle class house in rural North Carolina and leave within 6 years with $350k+ residual profit, but that's fairly common for those I know in the Bay Area and NYC that bought before 2010.

Whether these things are sustainable is one thing, but NYC and SF have always been expensive areas to live and at the same time among the best chances to grow a career in most fields. Otherwise, there'd be little growth in cities. It's not like the millions of people in urban areas are all stupid or too young to think about families and renting v. buying.