No, they favor the bay area if you are a software engineer who is willing to sacrifice quality of life. That article starts off with this horrific line: "rent a room and move in with some friends". OMG. That is the sad situation we might expect for an unskilled high school drop-out with a felony conviction.
That article continues on with "Start a Family [...] It’s been 10 years". It is indeed common that people in high-cost areas feel unable to start families earlier, but that isn't something to just accept as normal. It is better to have kids when you have energy for them and when birth is safer. Starting earlier also allows for the possibility that you might end up wanting a larger family than you had initially expected. For example, I sure didn't imagine I'd be having 12, but that probably could not have happened in the Bay Area.
In 10 years, one ought to have paid off a house.
The article mentions college, which can be had cheaply, but neglects to mention private schooling. Normally this would be the larger expense by far.
The "middle of nowhere" comparison also seems a bit low for salary. It might be right if you tossed a dart at a map of the USA to determine your location, but not if you chose a low-cost area with a suitable industry.
I agree but people have gotten used to constantly rising house prices and started depending on it to pay off their home. In an environment with rising house prices your best strategy is actually to avoid paying as much as possible. Low down payments and 30 year loans mean that if you spend $50K on a 2 million dollar house and it appreciates by 10% to $2.2 million you have received a 4x return on your investment. If the house price tanks by more than $50k your mortgage is underwater and because you never planned to repay the entire loan, you will have to apply for bankruptcy.
