This is another whole thing that really grinds my gears. Why are financial incentives and thresholds not based on cost of living? It's absurd that the max unemployment benefit for someone in New Orleans is the same as for someone in New Iberia.
It's just crazy and defies all common sense that it's not.
But yeah, I totally feel the pain there. Austin in the last 20 years has gone from reasonable to very high COL. My home value has doubled in 7 years. We probably couldn't afford to buy our own house today.