[logfromblammo]

Realism takes a back seat to practicality here. A CoL calculator takes two cities and a dollar amount as inputs. A QoL calculator would need a lengthy list of preferences with reasonably accurate price estimates, and a complex network of likely substitutions. That seems like an academic project for a graduate student in economics, whereas CoL calculators are just a simple HTML form with a tiny bit of script and a database of scale factors for each city.

Thus, you can't really tell me how much I'd have to earn to be equally happy in SV as I am elsewhere, but you can easily tell me how much I'd need to maintain equal consumption there.

You can get some of your money back when reselling the house, possibly even within six months of listing it. I would not blithely make assumptions about any market when a bubble appears to be growing nearby.