Sure, but (depending on the area, at least) you can live very comfortably on 50% of what a west-coast US developer makes. Techies tend to forget that our pay rates are way above the national average.
Yeah, I mentioned in another comment that a typical dev salary here is significantly higher than the average family income.
You're spot on w.r.t. most living expenses, too. I've got a big apartment in a part of Toronto that I really like for $1200 a month. Buying a house in this city is another story, though. On my grandfather's street, smallish 3 bedroom detached homes are selling for $1.5 million+.
I live in Nelson BC where the powder skiing is legendary. You can get a very nice 3 bedroom house for USD$ 350k. Granted it's a small town but for the right people it's an incredible place with a small srtarrup scene.
Startup scene? I live not far off, relatively speaking, in fact I went across the border and visited Grand Forks just a few days ago. I've always loved Nelson. I'd move to Canada in a heartbeat but without a job offer in hand you can't "just move there" as an American. One of these winters I've got to make it up to Red Mountain, it's tough to find good powder in E. WA.
