I think London is particularly bad regarding the cost of living:SWE pay in general. But even in SV, if you started as L5/E5 at Google or Facebook and had enough

I think London is particularly bad regarding the cost of living:SWE pay in general. But even in SV, if you started as L5/E5 at Google or Facebook and had enough for 20% down you should be able to afford to buy a 3bed house with <1hr commute based on the cash flow from that single job.