I don't think the U.S. has quite the same problem Canada (or the U.K.) does of people/jobs concentrating in only a handful of mega-expensive cities. It may seem

I don't think the U.S. has quite the same problem Canada (or the U.K.) does of people/jobs concentrating in only a handful of mega-expensive cities. It may seem on a forum like this one that "everybody" is moving to NYC or SF, but If you look at the population change statistics from the census, the NYC and SF metro areas are growing relatively slowly. People are mostly moving elsewhere, for a variety of reasons, but cost of living probably being a factor. These are the the 10 fastest-growing large (>1m population) metropolitan areas in the U.S. in the period 2010-2015: 1. Austin, 2. Raleigh, 3. Houston, 4. Orlando, 5. San Antonio, 6. Denver, 7. Dallas, 8. Nashville, 9. Charlotte, 10. Phoenix. Plenty of pretty affordable options in there.