Not really, the Seattle area cost of living is very high and nearing SF levels. Average home prices are shooting up near $1m in Seattle. Even renting a studio apartment is almost impossible for less than $2k a month, it's ridiculous.
Not exactly. Median Bay area homes are selling for 1.2m vs. 840k in Seattle. Average studio apartment rental in SF is 3k a month vs about 2.2k in Seattle.
They're both extremely high costs of living. You aren't saving that much moving to Seattle. There is a noticeable salary difference/adjustment down if moving from SF to Seattle too.
Sure but it's not as bad as you're implying, and for your calculation take a 20% or more cut to your San Francisco salary to make it comparable to Seattle salaries. It's all roughly the same in the end.
The pay cut is exactly what we are talking about. Microsoft is able to pay inferior salaries because of the lower costs of living. So which part are you disagreeing with?
People in Seattle are no more richer or "happy" (your exact words I was replying to) vs. in SF is my point. Sure a home costs a little less but you're also paid less in Seattle. It's not a dramatic 2x difference in costs (again your words).
