15 hours ago, Nypyren said:

Seattle and SF have ridiculously high cost of living, high competition, and lots of companies that go bust quickly.  You might try Oregon or Texas, if you can find any jobs in those states.  (I'm in Oregon.)

Seattle's cost of living isn't too bad (even though housing prices have nearly doubled in the last 7-8 years) if you are making at least in the $40k-ish range, but I've made more than double that so I got comfortable rather easy and had plenty of disposable income before.  Seattle is still far cheaper than, let's say, NYC.  SF, however, is far worse.  I don't believe it would be worth it.

I've been considering Oregon, such as the Portland area, but apartments and rental houses are more expensive there.  If I get another call about a job in Hillsboro for Intel, I'm taking it.

Shogun.