Seattle Area (Score 2, Informative)

Here is my 2 cents. Area around Microsoft is becoming second to California in terms of cost of living. Prices for houses and condos continue to rise and with a starting entry-level salary of ~80K at MS not everyone can afford a decent place to live near Redmond campus. Many Microsoft employees bought 2-4 houses extra as an investment venture to cash out in the future. So, what you left with is an overpriced old junk you would not want to live in or will become a cash cow for your co-workers who started earlier then you and invested in real estate around Microsoft. Also, to tel lthe truth 80K would be a good salaray elsewhere but Seattle. Another thing to consider, work environment - there is no such thing at MS as a team. Everyone thinks he is a smart just because he works at MS and think things should be done his way - as a result no work is done and everythign is a mess. Don't get me wrong - technology is great at MS and there are like 4 companies like this in the whole world (MS, Oracle, IBM and maybe Google), but all things considered monetarily life is not sustainable in Redmond area. If you want life and family, consider either moving to a subsideary or work as a consultant for MS. Work for a development group will be tough - I can assure you that. Personally, I would want to live in neither Silicon Valley nor around Seattle.