I had almost the exact opposite experience.

I lived in SF, then moved to Athens, GA for 6 years, then back to SF. I have a lot more disposable income in SF because while my rent doubled, my salary tripled. On top of that, anything with an MSRP set at a national level (cars, bicycles, guitars) is a much, much smaller percentage of my monthly income. On top of that, I can contribute 3x as much to my retirement as I did before. It's win/win/win.

Your salary tripled? I think that might be the extraordinary factor here.

Almost to the penny. That said, the median income in Athens is next to nothing, but the housing market is dirt cheap, too.

Truth be told, it's actually a fantastic place to live, I just missed living in the city.

Eh, that's reasonable from Athens, GA (I spent ten years in Atlanta, and have some familiarity with the market in GA). Moving from Atlanta to Seattle doubled my total comp (and definitely did NOT double my CoL). Staying in Seattle and moving from one giant tech company to another doubled it again, so another part of it comes down to who's really willing to pay for talent.

I lived in Athens until recently. I work in Atlanta now, but I don't doubt you had such a big pay jump. When I looked (very briefly) at tech jobs in Athens they were all around 50-60k for senior positions (not much of a selection either obviously). Of course you can also get a 3k sqft house for under $200k around there.

While I get your point, I'm not sure Athens is the best example. Athens is a college town that's both too close and too far from the Atlanta metro area to really see many companies invest in it.

Alpharetta, for example, is an hour away from Athens, closer to the City of Atlanta, has a heavy tech presence, and a median household income approaching $100k in a state with a median income half that.

It's more expensive than Athens, yeah, but it's also not Silicon Valley expensive.

I grew up in the South Bay, lived in San Francisco for many years and the East Bay for a handful of years...overall I was in the area for 36 of my 42 years. Late last year I realized the Bay Area has become too much...too much money, too crowded, too annoying, too aggressive, too dirty (SF at least). My wife and I sold our house, made a healthy profit and moved to Colorado.

While we can make all sort of arguments and analysis on the cost of living, what did it for me was exactly what you stated..."quality of life". Being in software many of us are fortunate enough to be able to live in the most expensive area in the country. However, it doesn't do a damn bit of good when you're miserable due to all of the traffic, crowds and annoying people who surround you.

Being a native I never thought I'd leave. Now, I'm confident I'll never go back...our quality of life is so much better here in Colorado. I would never suggest anyone move there unless they were single, in their 20's and in the technology space. For that group of people, it'd be a great experience. For us older family types, unless you're a total city person, the area sucks the life out of you.

Just allow room for different points of view. I grew up in Colorado and became suffocated by the intense desire for "quality of life" -- it felt like the only people that moved to Colorado to be the best at what they do were in extraction industries. After having left (fled) Colorado for school, I moved out to Silicon Valley 20 years ago, and have since settled in the East Bay (where we have three school-age kids) -- and I will live here as long as the industry's epicenter is here.

I think it's great that you're happy in Colorado, and there's certainly a lot to love about the state (go Broncos!) -- but definitions of "quality of life" vary, and some might actually include some of the things that you didn't/don't like about the Bay.

Same reason my wife and I moved to Florida. I can live within 2-3 miles of the beach in a 4K sq ft home for $100K-200K (depending on level of fanciness).

I can work remotely from anywhere; why would I artificially lower my quality of life to live in SF proper as long as remote work exists?

Because Florida? Unless there is some island of sanity lurking in central Florida that I don't know about (and yes, I have been to St. Pete a number of times due to having family there), it's difficult to look past the massive increase in Dealing with Crazy People that would follow a move from SF to there. I actually like Florida (probably a lot more than your average Bay Area denizen) but the lifestyle tradeoff is a lot more complex than you are making it out to be.

I've been contemplating a move to FL for some time now except that I don't know much about the place other then a few times I've visited. What counties would you recommend for IT folks?

I'm in Central Florida (Tampa/St Pete area). I never look at the local job market, as its not the type of work I do (either finance or healthcare mostly).

IT is taking off in the Tampa/Orlando area, and Miami has a bit of a startup scene that's coming up to speed.

I suggest spending a couple weeks in the area, drive around, see what you like and what you need to live near (I don't have kids, but when I do, I'm home schooling. I work remote, so a commute does't matter. My housing selection was based solely on recreation, or rather, where I could park my sailboat).

Similar situation. Cost of living here in Cleveland is practically negligible compared to SV, while my salary is far more comparable.