This is a pretty good comparison, imho (lived in Cary since 2003, first for an RTP-based company, then one based on San Jose, and relocating this year to CA). I'm trading my beautiful suburban 4300sqft home on a nice lot in a neighborhood with 2mi of private greenways and very little traffic that I only paid $499k for ... for a 1700sqft ranch built in 1950 costing $1.4m and loads of traffic everywhere you look. The upside is the new job and the tech community, but I'm not 100% convinced I'm trading up re: quality of [family] life.