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Comment by fumeux_fume | Hacker News Reader

Granted, I’m an American and I’ve had a couple glasses of wine tonight, but I’ve read this comment like 8 times and it still makes no sense to me.

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The currency is worth 30% of a U.S. dollar but the cost of living is also significantly lower, so to a person living in either country $600 feels like about the same amount of money.

> but the cost of living is also significantly lower,

You can look at random things like groceries, homes or car insurance to see that this isn't really true. 600 USD (or even 600 CAD) goes a heck of a lot further in most of the USA.

The cost of living is often not lower in Canada. Average housing cost is now significantly higher in Canada and for those Canadians with an easy path to move to the US (like SW developer, engineer or doctor), the numbers I am recently seeing are salary of 2-3x in the US, housing cost 0.5 to 0.7x, and other cost of living a bit less.

Where are comparable locations half as expensive in the US? I agree that Canadian salaries trend much lower.

"Comparable locations" is very subjective, but Vancouver vs Denver is one I've heard of that seemed convincing to me. Then again, I've never been to Denver.

Those cities are not remotely comparable. Vancouver and Seattle are a much better comparison. From a cursory search an average home in Vancouver is $CAD 1.1 mil and an average home in Seattle is $USD 800k. So once you take into account exchange rate they are actually fairly similar.

You're right about the comparison between Seattle and Vancouver, but "housing is half the price" is a common comment from Canadians that have made the move (both online and people I know personally). It may be an exaggeration, but the US has 10x the population and more medium-large cities to choose from so I think it's somehow true at least some people can find a significantly cheaper place that is personally comparable and has a job for them. If you're a software engineer that lives in Vancouver (1x salary, 1x housing prices) and loves the mountains and wants to move to another mountain-adjacent place, Denver (2x salary, 0.5x housing prices) is indeed pretty enticing compared to Seattle (2.5x salary, 1x housing prices) or Calgary (1x salary, 0.4x housing prices).[1]

[1] Guess but not complete wild-guess multipliers

I agree. There are lots of places in Canada with 0.3x house prices but once you filter for 1x salary and places which are nice to live in Canada you are left with an empty set.

The ideal situation is you get a remote job in Canada for 1x salary and live in a nice place with 0.3x houses. That is my current setup.

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