Cost of living between Omaha and Jersey City, NJ is not nearly as bad. Just because you work in NYC doesn't mean you can't live 15 min away. (Queens and Brooklyn are similar priced, if you work on the east side.)
Also, your data on Indeed is a significant undercount of the higher paid programming jobs. If you are looking for a good programmer, you will pay $150k and you won't bother posting it on Indeed or Monster.
http://www.bestplaces.net/col/?salary=50000&city1=531370...
Also, your data on Indeed is a significant undercount of the higher paid programming jobs. If you are looking for a good programmer, you will pay $150k and you won't bother posting it on Indeed or Monster.