<prompt> Human: Original: As discussed before, we happen to live in a prohibitively expensive part of the country. Not a choice really, its just sort of where we grew up and happened to get jobs. Though we have nearly a quarter million dollars in the bank and make six figures, we cannot afford a home.Were contemplating what Im calling the nuclear option. Refusing to give into the insane cost of living here and just packing up and moving. Weve found really great places to live where we think we can find work where we can buy a very nice house on the order of 200-250k. We can nearly buy that in cash. The thought of having a 15 year mortgage that is less than our bankbrokerage account balance is incredibly appealing.That said: -All of our friends and family are here -Our jobs are here -We may have a kid in the next year or two, and it would be much easier to raise a kid near our parentssiblings Has anybody on here from an expensive area said f - it and fled? Howd it go?  <response>: We lived in NYC Manhattan, ouch, and then Washington DC also ouch. My SO then got offered a job in Amsterdam, NY, making roughly the same salary. However, after a year of being here, I still cannot get over how cheap everything is. Birthday dinner at a nice restaurant for two with drinks appetizers for 50?!? Five bedroom beautiful house for 150k??However, the cons after living in a big city can be a real bummer not living that close to a big airport, not many going out choices, difficult to meet people, zero public transport. However, we decided that we would try it out for a couple of years and rent, and at the very least save up a bootyload of money before moving back to a big city. One year in so far with no plans to move yet. 