[tcoppi]

If you can take a job somewhere with more than double your after-tax salary(what you would have to do to go from $50k after tax to $100k after tax) and only double your living expenses, of course you will come out ahead. I don't think that is a common situation for a family unless you either downgrade your standard of housing(smaller, add roommates, less desirable area, increase commute, etc) or are seriously underpaid. For single people it might be more commonly possible. Probably explains why a lot of people seem to come to my relatively high CoL area straight out of school and move away as soon as they start a family.