If your base of comparison is Berlin, then Tier 1 metros in the US can come out to 3-4x as expensive, but Germany also has pretty bad wage stagnation so ymmv

Berlin is not a Tier 1 city in Europe, at least not when it comes to rental costs.

I agree (Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Cologne-Bonn take the cake in DE economically while Berlin is a relative newcomer), but when Americans talk about Europe, the image that comes to mind is going to either be Berlin or maybe Paris (yes Ireland+UK are Europe as well, but they aren't exactly treated as European in the American zeitgeist).

That said, Berlin is definetly much cheaper than other cities due to the Cold War. It's basically Western+Central Europe's Austin.