The weather and sunlight are heavily dependent on the city - Stockholm and Valencia may be on the same continent but are vastly different in those aspects. Hou

The weather and sunlight are heavily dependent on the city - Stockholm and Valencia may be on the same continent but are vastly different in those aspects. Housing isn't more expensive baring maybe the city centers of huge cities like Paris and London. But housing is much more evenly spread and better connected with transit, so you don't jump from uber expensive dense city core to very far away low density suburbs. Savings from healthcare and transportation, plus pensions, offset the taxes, mostly.