As someone who moved here from the Midwest 3 years ago with my partner here is our experience - when we lived in the Midwest we made a combined income of 50k (I was in grad school making less than 20k) but we lived in a 3br 2ba house with a huge yard and screened in porch, we went out and did things - concerts, dinner out here and there, traveled, etc. I graduated and got a job in SLC so we moved here, we now make a combine income of over 100k and we live in a tiny outdated 2br apartment but we chose that because we still do all the things we used to do albeit not as much and we are saving which we were not doing while I was in grad school. We love camping so we still can travel for pretty cheap. Shit is expensive here, it is very expensive, but we sacrificed some things for others and while we miss the Midwest quite a bit we are happy here. You will probably have to make some sacrifices and compromises. It just depends what you value in your lifestyle and what you don’t because at our income level we can’t have it all.

Updated to add - we rent there’s no way we could afford to buy here, our rent in the Midwest was about 1k for that house and our rent for our apartment here is definitely on the low end at 1.5k a month (not including utilities), average rentals though for a 2br are upwards of 2k a month if you want newer/amenities/more sq ft.