==Cities in league with Chicago would be NYC/SFO/LAX/SEA/ATL/BOS/DC== All of these cities, except Atlanta, are considerably more expensive than Chicago. Worth

==Cities in league with Chicago would be NYC/SFO/LAX/SEA/ATL/BOS/DC== All of these cities, except Atlanta, are considerably more expensive than Chicago. Worth noting that Atlanta has 486k residents and Chicago has 2.7 million. ==Chicago is good for many careers, but for how much longer== I think your perspective is a little outdated. Cost-of-living growth in Seattle, San Fran and NYC has made Chicago a much more attractive destination for tech companies: "Data from real estate firm CBRE shows that Chicago was the second most popular destination for companies based in the Bay Area, Seattle, Boston and New York to open new office space, behind only Austin." [1] Don't forget the world-renowned universities graduating boatloads of CS majors: "One out of 10 computer science degrees in the nation comes from Illinois colleges and universities, according to the index. California is the only state that churns out more." [2] ==and how much are people willing to deal with Chicago's weather?== But Boston and Minneapolis make your list? If anything, climate change will make Chicago more attractive over the next 30 years. ==or many in the top 20%, I don't think they would suffer career wise in many other places where the tax burdens aren't so severe. == The fastest growing demographic in Chicago is households making over $100k. The region is also quickly growing higher income levels: "Cook County, which includes the county seat of Chicago, is home to the No. 1 and No. 7 fastest-growing concentrations of $200,000-plus households." [3] I certainly have a bias towards Chicago, but your points just don't really bear out in the data. [1] https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/inno-news-chicago/despite-hq2-miss-chicago-still-a-top-choice-for-tech-office-expansions/ https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/inno-news-chicago/despi... [2] http://www.govtech.com/education/news/-Illinois-Second-Only-to-California-in-Number-of-Computer-Science-Degrees-Awarded.html http://www.govtech.com/education/news/-Illinois-Second-Only-... [3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/americans-earning-over-dollar200k-are-flocking-to-these-neighborhoods/ar-BBR7bqG https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/americans-earning-ov...