As someone from the Bay Area, please tell me where $2500 will get you 2 months of rent. Unless of course you mean a single room with a handful of roommates.
I'm finding a hard time finding people who even care - they either want to hire a developer or hire a designer. I feel like I'd need to jump in with a startup or into a company with few employees to get the commendation.
I'm thinking of moving to Calgary - I'm currently in Saskatoon. What is a decent price for a developer in Calgary? I'm an iOS dev with 4 years experience (I've worked on about two dozen apps, and have ~10 on the store I've worked on, including 4 of my own). I know of a place that will pay at least starting 70k, it may have gone up since I last checked (I wouldn't guess more than 75). They do also offer bonuses and what not and company stake for vc created stuff, but I'm not really sure if that's a good wage or not. There aren't many places in Saskatoon doing mobile work right now, and to be honest that looks a lot more promising than stuff locally.