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FWIW, I moved from Chicago to the Bay Area two years ago. In the Bay Area:
- salaries seem to be 40-80+% higher, as well as significantly more chances to trade salary for equity (if that's your thing)
- there are probably 50-100x more senior developer jobs in SF than Chicago, and at least that many more in the Valley
- there are more specialized jobs available (by market, technology, growth stage, company size, etc)
- housing prices for a family of 5, good schools, safe neighborhoods, fairly long commute, are probably 75% higher to buy, 50% higher to rent.
- the SF tech jobs are better located for transit than the good Chicago ones (River North, Ravenswood, etc are miserable if you ride Metra) Whenever I looked outside of tech hubs (Tampa, Atlanta, SLC, Research Triangle), I found housing prices within 10-20%, salaries lower by 25% or more, and much narrower job selection than Chicago. Austin was the only place that had more jobs, but salaries and housing prices were in line with those other cities. My conclusion is that there are many cities where you can create a good job+housing situation, but once you make it work your options are very, very limited. The biggest benefit I feel from living in the Bay Area is the immense career flexibility and potential over the next 20+ years. |