"3) ... There are plenty of parts of the country where you can earn a combined six figure income while spending less than $100/sqft for a home in a good neighborhood."
Where are these magical lands? I've lived in Atlanta and the SF Bay Area, and the salary difference between the two for engineers is around 30%, although house prices aren't much cheaper in the former - unless you want to live in the suburbs, and then you make up the difference in gas.
Medical specialists are tied to hospitals, some of which may be more affordable areas, but technologists (who this site arguably caters to) tend to be bound to tech hotspots, where house prices near $1MM don't raise eyebrows.
Hmm..I think we went to Tech around the same time.
Regardless, prices in Atlanta suburbs are less than 1/3rd of the prices in the bay area - and I am talking about suburbs just outside 285 - like Dunwoody that are <10 from Buckhead.
A $300K house in Dunwoody would easily cost more than $1MM in almost all of south bay.
There's no way you can make that difference up in gas - unless you go back and forth 5 times a day.
Having said that, your expected income in the bay area more than makes up for that difference if you are working in technology and entrepreneurial.
If you talk about Urban living, the costs are universally high, and only get worse once you have a family.
Suburbs get a bad rap, but they are way more economical once you have kids. And not everyone has to commute. Plenty of us work from home or work in nearby Suburban office parks.
I live in Dallas where costs are similar to Atlanta. Living in the Bay Area would mean four times the cost for family friendly housing at maybe a 40% increase in salary.
Where are these magical lands? I've lived in Atlanta and the SF Bay Area, and the salary difference between the two for engineers is around 30%, although house prices aren't much cheaper in the former - unless you want to live in the suburbs, and then you make up the difference in gas.
Medical specialists are tied to hospitals, some of which may be more affordable areas, but technologists (who this site arguably caters to) tend to be bound to tech hotspots, where house prices near $1MM don't raise eyebrows.