Austin. I got a call years ago from a recruiter to go work at Apple Retail Software Engineering, through their contract-to-hire process. I lived and worked in

Austin. I got a call years ago from a recruiter to go work at Apple Retail Software Engineering, through their contract-to-hire process. I lived and worked in Cupertino for about six months, but it was clear things weren't working out. When the contract ended, I was very relieved that I could move back to Austin. If they had made me an offer to convert, they would have had to pay me north of $250k/year in order to afford to live anywhere remotely close to the office and make it worthwhile. At that time, rent for a small 1BR apartment was well north of $2k/month, and that is much higher than my monthly mortgage payment here in Austin for a 4BR/3BA house in a very nice neighborhood.