Interesting; it turns out I make right around MV$100,000. Never realized that.

But given two roughly equal-valued salaries, I think the higher absolute salary is still superior. Savings, for instance, don't scale with cost of living; saving 20% of $100,000 is much different from saving 25% of $40,000.

Also, if you relocate from Mountain View, I suspect you'd be able to keep more of your salary than the cost-of-living decrease would strictly dictate.

These savings can only come after the cost-of-living overhead. It's important to note that average salary does not scale 1:1 with cost of living.

Depending on your finances, a 20% bump in pay with a 40% increase in cost of living may lower your discretionary income.

For some, this is offset because overhead does not scale 1:1 with salary: living in a high-cost area provides a greater discretionary income advantage to those with high incomes than for those with modest incomes.

But cost of living can mean you save none of the $100,000 and lots of the lower salary.

I just moved from Oklahoma to Tennessee and CNN's housing estimate is way off. It says TN is 20% cheaper and it is actually just the opposite.

Probably depends on where in Oklahoma and Tennessee. I moved from Tulsa to Nashville three years ago and the housing market seems fairly equivalent to me with Nashville being slightly higher (which makes sense with Nashville being larger than Tulsa).

Yeah, real estate in the area is what stuck out in my mind the most. I have no idea what rents are like, but then again a new, single grad doesn't mind shacking up with a few other people and keeping costs down.

An experienced engineer with a family and kids looking for a house might not fare as well.