I realize this counters my own statement (after all Dublin IE has some of the same problems as the bay wrt housing) but there are still cities in Europe offering what I stated.
It's really pretty shockingly easy to move here as a US expat too. I'd be happy to talk to people about how to do it (or if you want to work at Apollo Agriculture we can really just do it all for you.)
It falls flat on housing, though, mostly because rents and buying costs are up 80% or so in the last few years. When I moved here it was quite affordable.
It also fails badly on:
* My child could ride her bike to school without getting run over by a car
But I'm in the Dublin Cycling Campaign and pushing to make that better.
If I were moving _now_ I'd be looking closely at Utrecht. Another person mentioned Lausanne which I admit has me a bit envious too; looks to be quite reasonable https://www.immoscout24.ch/en/flat/rent/city-lausanne
I live in near the Spokane/CDA region. Spokane is the major city, an hour from where I live, as I live in a rural area. Boise is also nice and would offer the same.
* A decent paying job in tech
* In a neighborhood where I could walk to do things with my friends
* But my friends didn't all have astronomical salaries
* I could ride a bike without getting screamed at
* My child could ride her bike to school without getting run over by a car
* (Unrelated but while I'm at it) - I could take a true vacation or weekend and nobody would dream of asking me how they reach me on said vacation.
I don't know of a single place in the US that meets these criteria. At one point I might have said Portland but the nicer areas there are getting very, very expensive.