The only expensive part in Moscow is home/appartment. Everything else is cheaper than in other cities. Moscow is a major logistic hub of whole country, everything is here. Food, entertainment, great public transport system.
> Moscow is too expensive: it prices even software developer leads out.
No, it doesn't. This "woe is me, underpaid all the time" rhetoric from someone with a software dev salary is getting really tiring.
Moscow is huge. And Software devs are a small minority of all occupations. Plenty of people afford living in Moscow just fine without anywhere near the level of salary typical of software.
Probably the only place in the world that priced out software devs was pre-Covid SV, where you weren't able to work remotely from cheaper accommodations. But that really is a unique location and a self-inflicted CA problem.
It's not even a first-world problem. It's more of a middle-upper class spoiled rich brat with a 1% salary problem. The NY alternative for this is "woe is me I can't afford private school for my 6 kids and a 5th ave apartment at the same time"
> Probably the only place in the world that priced out software devs was pre-Covid SV, where you weren't able to work remotely from cheaper accommodations.
You'd be surprised.
As far as I know, in the US both Seattle and Austin became terribly expensive to the point FANG salaries don't allow for a comfortable, well-off life style with a lot of disposable income to spare.
Austin alone is renowned for requiring a >$100k salary to live comfortably, when FANGs with a presence there barely pay $120k.
Personally, I know a couple of ex-Amazon developers from Madrid who outright quit because Amazon's salary (around €40k for SDE1) wasn't enough to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the city center.
Compared to what? Compared to other Russian cities it is certainly expensive. Compared to e.g. San Francisco it is very cheap.
> it prices even software developer leads out.
Doesn't match my experience at all. It doesn't require extraordinary thrift for someone with a software developer lead salary to start a family and pay off a mortgage for a decent apartment.
Given the context provided for the statement, “Moscow is too expensive: it prices even software developer leads out”, local wages, since (as described) it is too expensive for even relatively high-wage workers.
