My friend, live in a podunk town for a while before you take that bargin xD

Though, to be fair, there are a ton of awesome NON-podunk little towns that are a delight to live in.

I grew up in one, it'd be going home to the way life should be.

Serious question: do you have children? The quality of schooling in large swathes of the country is abysmal.

Unless you are shelling out a college tuition for a top-level private school for the connections that it gives, there's effectively no real difference in your public school options - absent completely abysmal warzone type places.

In any case, one will need to put in the effort to get one's children properly educated. A smaller school district probably gives more opportunities to experience a wider spectrum of activities anyway - I certainly wouldn't have been able to be a three sport athlete, take every shop class available, participate in math and geography competitions, and a whole host of other extra curricular activities in a bigger pool.

Your spouse can homeschool if you make that much.

Good news for you, there are tons of remote software jobs that allow you to live wherever you want.

And pay two thirds less. The qualifier is equal pay.

I've never seen a remote job that paid two thirds less. Some do pay less based on location but many don't.

I can choose 400k-500k compensation working at fang or I can choose 100-200k compensation working remotely.