[badpun]

Houses in for example Munich are more expensive than houses in SF (2.3 mil in Munich vs 1.5 mil in SF), while no one in Munich is making anywhere close to the FAANG salaries. The solution is that the coders don't live in houses, but rather in smallish appartments instead (or, if they want a house badly enough, they live far away from the city and have long commutes).

Western Europe is basically poor-ish compared to the US, and US people who imagine average W. European to be as well off as average American (but with better security, free healthcare etc.) are deluded. They overall standard of living is way lower over here, we're just used to it so we don't complain.