For a place to rent you can find 2500 sqft higher end apartments relatively close to work for 3000-3500 a month. The total income of a senior engineer when you factor in the stock compensation (and not just the base salary) should more than cover for that. On top of it, many other things cost the same across the country (ex. gadgets) while your salary is much higher than other places.

Now if by "cost of living" you mean that you must _own_ a single family home, then things definitely start looking a lot more grim. But I think it's unfair to make that as some sort of basic requirement for moving somewhere, it's a very American attitude to begin with.