[guyrt]

Redmond is too small to compare statistically to Singapore. The author took a homogeneously nice town with 54K residents and compared to a city-state with 100 times more people. Take a moderate to very nice section of Singapore with 54K people and let's see the numbers again.

I moved to Redmond recently from Toronto, which was a pretty expensive city. My living expenses went up a little, but my quality of life went up dramatically. I live in a modest house, but it's mine. The cost of a mortgage was less than the cost of renting a smaller place. I own a car, which means skiing or hiking every weekend.

The weird thing about Redmond (and Bellevue) is the "everyone is above average" feeling. The expectation is that everyone has a stable, well paying job. It's a bit of a Stepford Wives kind of town. What if you are working in something that doesn't start you at 80K with benefits? Then your options in town dwindle very, very quickly.