How much is it worth to you to live near some of the best schools and medical facilities in the entire world?
How much is it worth to be able to go out into pristine wilderness? Yeah, it may be a couple hours drive from Boston, but I actually lived in the woods less than 100 miles away.
How much would you pay for white winters that most people only see in movies?
How much is it worth to you to live in an area with low crime rates? Last I checked, NH (with it’s lose gun laws) has less firearm-related violent crimes per capita than Japan (where guns are practically illegal. and I never had to worry about locking my car.)
Many people are willing to pay quite a bit for stuff like that, and supply and demand pushes prices up.
That said, the rents here in Seattle are comparable to what we were paying in NH, though we cut expenses a bit by moving somewhere where 30F is cold as opposed to a heatwave (I recall some weeks in NH where -20F felt warm :P ) so our heating costs are considerably lower. We were paying about $2,000/year just for heat. However, there are other things that are much cheaper in the Northeast.
If you like to eat, especially if you like good food like fresh milk, or have a taste for cheese then the Northeast is less expensive. Out here, Pepsi averages $6.50 a 12-pack compared to the $4 or less that I paid in NH. Cabot cheese is $8 instead of $2, and good bacon is hard to find at any price.
So part of it is the expenses related to living in a cold climate where they salt the roads (which increases car maintenance costs) but most of it has to do with the quality of life in the region, and the fact that many people are willing to pay that cost. Hell, there are a lot of people from other parts of the country that have vacation homes up there, whether it be for the cooler summers or for the skiing.
@CyanoticWasp That is why I avoided the Boston area and coastal NH as much as possible. I miss how people back East actually know how to drive though, and the 2 inches of snow we had here last week (and the resulting flurry of funny Youtube videos last week) slammed that point home recently.