3. Austin, Texas

Cost of living as a percentage of salary: 48.4%

Technology giants Dell, Amazon and IBM – along with Visa and Charles Schwab – account for more than 18 percent of the estimated 16,800 open tech jobs in and around the Texas capital, according to Paysa.

The city has the seventh highest average annual technology salary, at $103,049, and the top skills in demand include Software-as-a-Service, Perl and jQuery.