There's a tradeoff. For example, even people making low 6 figures are unlikely to ever own a house in (a decent part of) London unless they inherit it or win the lottery. A medium to small city is more economical for cost of living, with a decent proportion of the pay and lower costs of living.
If you are young you might not care about buying a house, and care about hanging out with friends and doing things instead. Cities attract young people who don't mind renting, suburbs attract families who care more about buying their own houses.
Part of that is true, I guess - I'm temporarily renting, but family is definitely not in my future plans. Suburbs don't appeal to me, especially as I like going out, but neither does a prohibitively expensive city where I'll never do better than a flat.
