Basically nobody outside of NY even remembers that Rochester exists, I was being lazy but I figured that most people would interpret NY == NYC.

NYC, $150k. That's a pretty abysmal salary for a software engineer.

Most people seem to, which is a thorn in the side of anyone who has lived outside of NYC in the big beautiful state of NY. It's annoying having to regularly clarify "the state, not the city".

California outside of LA/SD/SF is dramatically different (with the exception of some coastal areas). Even then housing and rental competition can be pretty bad. My brother in law has done 4 hour round trip commutes to the Bay Area for contracting work while managing to find an area with affordable housing.

Yeah, Sonora, about an hour from Stockton or 3 from Bay Area, has houses available at 600k or something. Crazy.

Yup — they’re out that way and it’s still pricey. It’s unreal — the last time I heard the subject of renting here come up there were only 3-4 houses available in the whole town.

Yeahz 3 or 4 at max. At this moment its only 2 houses, and 1 commerical.