Honestly, lack of geography compared to the real estate market and short call range is what kept us from just sucking it up and moving there when I got hired.

ATL is expensive for what it is, an inland city in driving distance of but not in the mountains. Same goes for MSP actually. DTW has the great lakes right there which is ocean-enough for many.

Back when you could buy a baller house in golf cart land on 2nd year F/O pay without a side gig, familial wealth, working spouse or some other "non Delta source of money" the cost of living vs nice enough and really, REALLY close to work was hard to beat.

I look at the numbers of senior-ish but not crazy area code seniority guys I flew with on the ER, who had a house in PTC, and a lake/beach/mountain house and didn't have a high income spouse or crazy good side gig. Bought it when new-ish hires, and then bought the 2nd home around the time they upgraded.. Most told me they got lucky and bought before ATL went nuts real estate wise for non aviation reasons.

I know anecdotes are not data, but ATL over the last 20 years median home prices have almost tripled.While that's the metro as a whole, and not any specific neighborhood, that took away one of the better reasons to move to ATL, in that you could easily afford a very nice house in a very good school district, without it being a financial stretch on what a 2nd year FO makes. Buying a house in PTC would be doable for me now, and I don't have any really crazy bills anymore as a NB Captain, but forget about it on F/O pay if we have another contraction.

I'd be willing to be somewhat house-poor if I was a few blocks off the beach in SoCal, or had a place where I could go ride my mountain bike out of my yard and ride my dirtbikes without driving hours to get to the closest practice track or state ORV area.

But ATL doesn't have that much in the "it's right here" geography wise (aka it's not ever going to be built) for me to want to pay that premium price.