What??? Maybe in Silicon Valley, but everywhere else in the US if you’re a programmer you’re in the top 25% incomes locally, probably higher. In Austin, a good front end dev and you’re living in pretty much any neighborhood you want.
That's a rather bleak outlook on life. And nonsense. If you get a nice job in Austin for $120k, you can buy a house in a nice neighborhood, let your wife stay at home with the 3 kids, own 2 cars, take vacations. And it's been that way for the last 20 years I've been here.
> Austin for $120k, you can buy a house in a nice neighborhood, let your wife stay at home with the 3 kids, own 2 cars
I'm not that familiar with Austin, but a quick look at real estate listings show that four bedroom homes with two car garages are not commonly available for less than $400,000, unless you perhaps want to spend most of your non-working hours commuting.
