Best Place to House Hack for Software Engineer?

[Kamil Kisielewicz]

Hi All,

I'd like to start by saying thank you to anyone taking the time to read this post and reply! This is my first post on BiggerPockets. I've been reading financial books on real estate and stock investing. I just finished reading Set For Life, and I'm extremely inspired to take control of my financial future. I'm currently going to be interning at Amazon and NVIDIA during the second half of 2021 in Software Engineering.

Looking further ahead, since I'll be making around 150k before taxes, I want to make sure that 15-20k doesn't get eaten so I can reduce rent expenses. However, the Bay Area, where I currently live, has crazy high house prices. 

Therefore, I'm looking into Seattle, Austin, and Raleigh-Durham to move into after college and house-hack. These markets also seem to be pretty tough to pull off a house hack in, but the midwest properties (which seem to be more house-hack friendly) don't have tech hubs that are nearly as booming.

Which city should I be looking into as a new grad in Software Engineering to start my real estate journey?