[seanp2k2]

Suburbs in most places = medium-low pay but fairly cheap housing country = cheap housing, no [tech] jobs Metro areas (more dense than suburbs, less dense than cities...e.g. most of the Bay Area) = expensive housing, medium or high pay Cities = extremely expensive, high pay (for tech jobs)

Pretty much every scenario seems to be "optimized" to have techies paying 30-50% of their monthly income to housing. You can't really win, but you can attempt to maximize the real dollar amount you end up left over with with each month. Working remotely is "cheating the system" and is therefore largely disallowed, or "work from home" is allowed only to quell some degree of outrage. Literally the industry that invented video chat doesn't [want to] understand how to use it to work remotely.