Or d) they are willing to move out of the top 5-10 mostly coastal real estate markets. For instance, tech hub Austin, TX has a median home price of $122k. The payment on that will be around $1k-$1100/mo including taxes etc. You'll find very similar numbers in places like Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Raleigh, etc.
The basic problem with coastal markets (and a few inland ones) is that building regulation has messed up the housing market by making it impossible to build enough to meet demand, as Matt Yglesias describes in The Rent is Too Damn High and Edward Gleaser describes in The Triumph of the City.
That's a valid point, but I didn't know there were any tech hubs or otherwise interesting places with jobs that had house prices like that. That is lower than small Midwestern cities with lousier economies. Why is housing so affordable in Texas? Lack of stupid regulations? Loads of land?
Both, plus c) it's not perceived as being as cool as living in a trendier place and d) it's under-marketed relative to the bigger cities. Note also that Raleigh/Durham has a smallish tech hub and housing is cheap there too. Oh, and also e) the perception that nothing is interesting unless it happens in NYC or SF (or other mega-city).
If you're willing to live outside a tech hub (which has other advantages), you'll find that in most places in the US programmers make high salaries relative to the cost of living, but the focus tends to be on the few places that this is not true. Outside the top markets, $70k + bonus is more than enough to be comfortably middle class (and own a home and car if desired).
