House Values

An example of the relative cost of living versus places outside of California:

In Ohio, you can buy a house for $150K.

In California, the average cost of a house is around $600K.

The rule of thumb for total wages in California in comparison to
places outside of state is that you earn twice as much in California. So, if you make $100K/yr. in California, the rule of thumb is that you would make $50K/yr. out of state.

So, even though you would only make half as much outside of California, houses only cost a quarter as much. So, in a sense, only making $50K/yr. out of state is virtually the same as making $100K/yr within California.

Just think of what the difference would be if you were able to buy the house outright out of state. The amount needed for a 20% downpayment for a house in California would do that for many places outside of California.