“that area makes its own rules for real estate pricing and everything else.”
Yep. I’d happily live in NYC near my friends if I were in a position to quadruple my housing budget.
But all housing comfort and satisfaction is relative; it’s all about who your peer group is! I think I live in the best of all possible worlds – with so many friends and family in NYC, DC, and SF, I’m used to their housing prices and forced compromises, so I come back home to downtown Chicago and feel like I live in a palace at a great price. Of course, I’m sure people who move here from Oklahoma City are appalled that Chicagoans could pay such high prices for a little rabbit hutch.