If cost of living in Germany is cheaper than in a typical place in the U.S., then things have really, really changed since I lived in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Munich in the mid-90s.
My impression then was Germany (real estate, food, just about everything) was more expensive than anywhere in the U.S., except maybe New York.
I was earning dollars and spending Deutschmarks. (It was pre-Euro.)
I'm surprised to hear Germany is cheap in any sense now.
The low cost of living has been my biggest surprise. The last couple of years I was working I lived in a cheapish area of Baltimore. But my cost of living has tumbled since I live in Germany (with the exception of for gasoline!!). I have some advantages:
-- I live in a rural area (I am literally writing these words looking out at wheat fields) albeit close to a well-preserved medieval city that is reasonably sophisticated. (a few bookstores, lots of restaurants, one Michelin restaurant, a decent hospital). I take the fast train to Frankfurt airport when I travel. That's fast, but it's expensive (€19 each way); it takes me 14 minutes from town to the airport, and it take me fifteen minutes to drive to the train station and park. Because my area is served by a well, my water is cheap (usually in Germany it is expensive) and I have natural gas, also inexpensive for heating. (But this can be replicated.) My house is 2,000 to 3,000 square feet, costs €1300 a month. I have a pond in the backyard and a quite large lot. This would cost me way more in America. Because I rent I have no out-of-pocket costs. If I owned I think the equation would be different.
-- Big savings in eating out (a good meal for two with wine can easily be had for under €50), grocery-shopping, (literally a fraction of what I spent in the US), beer and wine (and, frankly, much better quality). Clothing for me, and I am not at all brand conscious, is about the same.
-- I travel to Berlin (a lot more expensive), Hamburg and Frankfurt, (ditto), and Munich (to my mind the most expensive place in Germany). But these are splurges. When we travel we either get good off-season rates on booking.com or we use airbnb.
-- I have netflix for movies, buy books from Amazon UK which delivers here in Germany and although it's marginally more expensive than in Baltimore, not that much more.
There is no way I could live my current lifestyle in New England or Maryland on my tight budget here. I also remember Germany from the pre-Euro days and I struggle to decide if my impressions were warped because I was in Berlin and Munich back then (more expensive places) or whether it's because the Euro has made Germany cheaper. (Oh, and German reunification, which I think brought prices down also.) But when my partner convinced me to move here I was very skeptical that we were going to be able to do this. I am changing my mind.
I was considering retiring to San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) before we moved here. Although if you're buying in SMA it's likely cheaper, I think the combination of amazing German infrastructure, everything first-world quality, good hospitals, and the ability to drive to so many fantastic places is tough to beat. We drive to Paris for the weekend, to Strassbourg, Berlin, etc.. These trips can be expensive but nonetheless they're a lot cheaper than to travel from the US.