sdr,
Yes, I agree. You can count me amongst the folks who used to think that we in SoCal were the wealthiest folks anywhere. Now my big dilemma is what happens to my career if I move back to OC. I’m in high-tech, and compared to SF, BOS or SJC, SoCal is a tech backwater with virtually zero VC $$$ flowing into it.

Boston is also the #2 money center in the US after NYC. Where else in the country can you make $250K and find a nice house in a great area within a 1 hour driving commute for $500K-$800K?

The only negative aside from weather if you have a family is the dearth of good state universities in the east. In CA one forgets how lucky one is to have UCB and UCLA as state school options. UMass, UNH, UVT, UMaine, OConn all suck – 3rd rate state schools dwarfed by Harvard/Tufts/Dartmouth/Yale/MIT/Princeton/Amherst etc etc etc. If you live in the NE, prepare to save big $$$ and hope your kids get into good private schools.