Chicago probably has the best salary/cost-of-living ratio and Budapest isn't so bad because it's cheap. Singapore, on the other hand, has NYC-level rents if you can't get into high-density housing.
It's not great for software engineers (compared to executives) anywhere but, at least in the other cities I listed, there's a fighting chance of them getting something beyond a college lifestyle.
If you don't have at least some engineers making money and getting to call shots-- I'll argue till I'm blue in the face that the current Valley culture doesn't have enough of them, but it has some-- then you don't get innovation. You get the same tired old ideas, sped along just slightly by a higher degree of technical efficiency (the rising tide).
I'd love to be wrong about this, but I've interviewed with a couple of Singapore companies in my life and the culture that I've seen is just not progressive nor is it pro-technologist. It seems to still be a world where businessmen call the shots-- but I'll admit: I don't live there. Given that it was difficult to get anyone but a bank to pay for relocation (I became "cat relo guy", for one place, because I mentioned that it'd cost $7k to move my cats... that negotiation, predictably, fell through) I'm pretty sure I never will.