I'm curious, though, what professions are being able to avoid all these high cost areas in Canada?

Vancouver, Toronto, Victoria - while not SF or NYC cost of living, they are still really expensive and their programming salaries appear to be 50% at best of comparable salaries in major US tech centers. Are other professions in Canada doing better? Are the only people who can afford the real estate people that just owned real estate previously and rich foreigners?

It's getting that way. We never had the housing price crash that the US had in the late 2000s. Things have continued to climb, and it's getting ridiculous.

I make a Google employee salary + RSUs. It is really good. I have no complaints about my compensation at all. I live on a 6 acre hobby farm, own two vehicles, am doing really well.

But I bought 6 years ago. I could not afford to buy this now.

Exactly. I'm making more than my father did when he retired, yet I'll be stretched to afford the cheapest one-bedroom condo. Renting is cheaper, but there are no rentals available.

That's 80-85k CAD. The market for local jobs in Victoria is easily competitive with that.

There's opportunities to make six (Canadian) figures in Victoria if you have enough buzzwords on your resume to convince a recruiter or HR person you're "full-stack" (I hate the term but you have to play the game if you want to get hired).