[aidenn0]

I've never lived in those, but my sister lived in Boston and didn't own a car.

Income tax is progressive, so a higher income tax is probably less relevant to you if you are housing-insecure. Sales tax is regressive, but is maybe 700bp higher in places with high sales tax, so much less than the 50% bump between 1/3 and 1/2 your income. As far as food goes, if you eat out, that's way more expensive, but groceries are a much smaller difference.