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This is interesting, but one thing that it doesn't cover properly is "areas" of the country.

For instance, I live in northern virginia, which is separated into a ton of small "cities", but it's really one big area, and should be considered as such, since there's not one big city. I'm sure there's a similar phenomenon in the silicon valley area.

Lowell;

Agreed. If you look at areas, it seems interesting that Texas has a high percentage of the best gigs, based on this data. Given, Texas is a BIG area, but 6 out of the top 7 in adjusted income. If I were single and looking for a place to go... :-) BTW, that assumes Arlington is the large Arlington in the Dallas area. Is it that one or Virginia, or other?

That's a good point... I saw that and immediately wondered if they meant the Arlington near me.

I think Texas is definitely a good place to work because of the extremely low cost of living... but Houston is just WAY too hot for me.

The USA isn't the world (fortunately). The fact that you don't even *think* of mentioning it's for the USA makes you come across very ignorant, IMHO.

Excellent point. Though wages are lower in many countries compared to the US, there are some parts of the world that may really skew this list for what standard of living you will have there. For example, I would be interested to know what USD$20K/yr would allow you for "purchasing power" in India, Vietnam or other emerging economy - if that's what you got paid. Interesting observation...

It's not just purchasing power, it's mobility and opportunity that makes such a comparison unique to the US. For example, Finnish vs. Spanish job conditions can very widely but someone in the US can easily go from Redmond WA to Jacksonville Florida to get a job. Not as easy in the EU.

The post is interesting, but after a while you'll notice that the cities that poke up the top after adjusting for cost of living don't typically have as much to offer in the number of jobs and interseting jobs compared to SF, NYC, and others. It's much harder. I would expect that to be even more pronouced if you compared cost of living with Vietnam, India, etc. Sure you might be able to scratch out a living there, but the number of jobs in software development offered by those places is going to be much smaller and much less interesting.

The top places to live if you're in software after adjusting for cost of living read like the inverse of top places to live if you're in real estate. Kinda funny.

Thank goodness we give people the benefit of the doubt, right? I mean, who knows how someone might imagine you after reading your comment.

My old post: "Oracle vs.. Sql Server vs. MySQL vs.. ASP vs. PHP vs. Cold Fusion - salary comparison" http://vladocarrer.blogspot.com/2006/10/oracle-vs-sql-server-vs-mysql-vs-asp.html
or more fresh:
http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=oracle&l1=&q2=sql+server&l2=&q3=my+sql&l3=&q4=asp.net&l4=&q5=ruby&l5=&q6=cold+fusion&l6=&tm=1

The Tampa Bay / Clearwater / St. Petersburg area of Florida pays Java EE developers very nicely. And since the crazy housing market has calmed down, houses here are very reasonably priced.

Just my 2 cents :-)