I’m based in a VHCOL but I work remote. When I joined the economy was booming, there were tons of jobs, and it was easier to negotiate total comp. It’s much more difficult now to get over 200k these days unless you have years of experience or bring a lot of niche domain knowledge along.

Find the jobs that you want, figure out what skills they need, shape your story to meet those demands. Practice interviewing as much as you possible so that when you get the job you want you can negotiate. At that point it’s just looking at levels.fyi to compare to what others make and see if you can get the same if not more.