Rents are a lot cheaper in Berlin. You don't need a car either. It's also a nicer city in general, I feel a lot safer in Berlin than in San Francisco.

Salaries for devs in the US are insane compared to the rest of the world, I don't think they can be taken as a reference, especially as most people do not have an easy way to just choose to move there.

Pretty much guaranteed. Even startups pay more than that and GAFAM pays 150,000 to new grads and 300,000-350,000 to senior engineers [0].

[0]: https://www.levels.fyi/

Hard truth: It also heavily depends on how good you are. The salaries talked about are usually the top 10% maybe 20%. Like people throwing around Facebook and Amazon salaries. They only employ a small percentage of devs.

That leaves at least 80% that earn considerably less and 50% that earn below the mean.

If you are looking at SMBs that treat you as a "IT guy", sure.

If you are looking at more "modern" tech companies in Berlin or well-funded startups it's definitely possible. The last 3 job offers I had were in the 90-100k range, for a "senior" position (~6 years of experience) in Berlin.

Its just from my personal experience, but i know a lot of people in the 70k+ range at different companies, all senior though. We also interview a lot and a considerable amount of candidates that get offered high sixties go somewhere else where they got a better offer.