I agree it can sometimes be a good comparison for SF, but I think there are a lot of circumstances where it isn't. Depends on the particular pair of cities, and

I agree it can sometimes be a good comparison for SF, but I think there are a lot of circumstances where it isn't. Depends on the particular pair of cities, and your other preferences, like type of housing. For one thing, though this may not apply to Helena, the salary differential is not nearly that big when you compare to many other cities. You can easily make over $100k working in tech in lots of places that are comparatively cheap: Austin, Pittsburgh, Houston, Chicago, etc. I think you will have trouble running the numbers on salary vs. CoL in Google Mountain View vs. Google Pittsburgh in a way that makes Google Mountain View come out ahead. I think whether you prefer to rent or buy also makes a difference. SF is just about doable on a high salary to rent, but requires serious wealth to buy. But the strategy you allude to of renting there a few years and saving up to later buy elsewhere is plausible.