In many places in the US you could easily rent a 3 bedroom house with a 2 car garage for $1000. Guess how much a 3 bedroom house is in San Francisco. >you're m

In many places in the US you could easily rent a 3 bedroom house with a 2 car garage for $1000. Guess how much a 3 bedroom house is in San Francisco. >you're much better off making $150k in SF than $80k in Kansas City. Don't forget state income tax and tax bracket. Also don't forget that some things like student loan interest aren't deductible above $80k. And don't forget that to get the mortgage interest deduction you have to actually own a house (easy in Kansas city on $80k, not in SF on $150k). The list goes on (price to get your kids into a decent school, etc) once you really start to dig into it. SF is great if you don't mind rooming up with people or living in a tiny studio. To raise a family though... it's not so cut and dry.