When people are looking for a place to live and work, they need to take into consideration the cost of living. But what constitutes that cost? Obviously, there are factors like real estate prices and the price of food and insurance, all big factors on the negative side of a family's balance sheet. But there are also less obvious contributors to the cost of living. Take, for example, the cost of a work commute. Driving from San Francisco to Palo Alto every day is no walk in the park, especially with Silicon Valley traffic.  In fact, California has some of the most costly metropolitan areas in the country.

But does Ohio offer compelling enough cost of living appeals to make it a consideration for a smart working professional with a family to consider moving to the midwest?

A recent trip to Salary.com yielded a few results as I attempted to figure out how Ohio stacks up to other states. Compared to San Jose, for example, the cost of living is 29% lower in Cleveland, Ohio, while the average payroll is only 15% lower, meaning that the net disposable income of folks in Cleveland is actually nearly 14% more than those living in San Jose.

Compared to somebody working and living in Manhattan, the difference is even more distinct. New Yorkers' cost of living is said to be 43% higher than those living in Cleveland, but their typical pay is only 15% more. That means that Clevelanders recognize a nearly 28% higher disposable income, on average.

The trade-off? Jobs. Especially high-end jobs that appeal to college graduates with hefty tuition loans to pay back. Since Ohio has only three cities with 450,000 or more people (Cleveland, Cincinatti, and Columbus), there's a much lower volume of engineering and technology jobs. But does this mean that tech works really need to look to the higher-cost areas of the country where tech jobs seem to be in greater supply?  Or would a groundswell of new tech jobs in Ohio have an inflationary effect on the cost of living here?