I think a better comparison in situations like these is to look at the cost of buying a house. While renting may be the norm in places like SF and NYC, in the midwest the norm for people making a good living is buying a house. I imagine the math is more along the lines of "how much would it cost to buy a comparable house in SF?" In which case, you may be going from a $400k house in TX to a $2M+ house in SF. If all your money is going to a monthly mortgage, you don't have extra to spend on cars and vacations.