Wouldn't it? What major metropolitan areas are you talking about specifically? $250K is FANG compensation for an engineer with a few years of experience. Accor

Wouldn't it? What major metropolitan areas are you talking about specifically? $250K is FANG compensation for an engineer with a few years of experience. According to NerdWallet cost of living calculator, equivalents are: Manhattan: $314K Los Angeles: $191K Boston: $196K Chicago: $157K Miami: $152K Denver: $149K Philadelphia: $146K Minneapolis: $139K Atlanta: $134K Des Moines: $117K So $250K in San Francisco should afford similar lifestyle as in other major cities paying $135K-$160K. But a senior-level position in FANG should be closer to $350K and above. I think that becomes much harder to match as a commodity developer outside the Bay Area (it'd be $205K in Philly, for instance). And even if you did match it, and you're able to sock away X% of your income a year in both cities, the FANG salary leaves you with many more dollars in your bank account in a few years. You could always leave the Bay Area at some point, and spend those dollars in a low CoL area. I'm not saying it's worth it. The Bay Area has a lot of downsides. San Francisco has become a crime-ridden cess pool in recent years. Commutes are horrendous if you don't live near work. And many tech companies in the Bay Area pay much less than FANG compensation (and I know from experience), which really makes it hard to stomach. But from a purely financial standpoint, it seems like the FANG developers are doing pretty well.