> housing costs and living expenses are not that crazily different. Are you really sure you're familiar with housing in those two cities? I am, intimately so,

> housing costs and living expenses are not that crazily different. Are you really sure you're familiar with housing in those two cities? I am, intimately so, and the difference is huge. It's absolutely crazily different. St. Louis is dirt cheap compared to San Francisco. SF housing is most certainly well more than twice as expensive. Also, I think your salary gap isn't necessarily representative of the norm. $75k is closer to starting salary in many medium-COL cities, and $150k is definitely not the starting salary for the vast majority of developers in San Francisco. Most start at something like $100k, which is actually borderline worse than $75k in certain cheaper areas (especially those without state income taxes, like Texas). All that said, I agree that one should probably take $150k in SF over $75k in St. Louis. I just disagree with the nuances of your post, based on experience.