You can't throw taxes into the mix without knowing whatt the site is using to calculate cost of living. (I don't know either.) I'd assume that taxes are already

You can't throw taxes into the mix without knowing whatt the site is using to calculate cost of living. (I don't know either.) I'd assume that taxes are already included since that's part of what'd you'd consider when moving between areas, and is another area where you'd save by moving. If we assume that taxes are included: Moving to Austin costs $20.9k in total salary. Total expenses would have to be $79,167 ($20,900 / 0.264) or less for the Valley to win out. If the hypothetical person saves more than $20,833 a year (after taxes since we're assuming those are part of the cost of living), having higher earnings is preferable to having a lower cost of living to increase the size of the savings. Many people don't save that much. You also chose San Jose as the city for the comparison, when most people I know prefer to live in San Francisco, where the cost of living is even higher. Moving to Austin from San Francisco supposedly results in a 42.7% decrease in cost of living. You'd have to be saving $51,053 after taxes for moving to be a bad idea financially.