haha this is hilarious that im reading your post and you're basically me.

im in montreal now. i also went to NYU, but i graduated a couple years ago.

the subway system is disintegrating.

the subway system in NYC sucks but... the MTL subway isn't great. it doesn't cover all of montreal so you have to use busses a lot. im prob gonna get a scooter soon.

mainly how expensive apartments are there (I'm tired of 45 minute commutes)

to get a big 1 bedroom in the MIDDLE OF EVERYTHING here, it's only about $1400 CAD. which apparently is on the high side. it's really cheap compared to NYC.

Is it relatively easy to find good-paying work in the tech sector (especially as a U.S. citizen)?

i looked up the salary really briefly and it's about 60k USD. not great.

i can't answer much about the job industry here though. i kept my NYC job before i moved. tech companies are really lax about remote work. im getting paid NYC/US tech industry salary while living in montreal... it's pretty damn amazing. that's an option to explore.

the downside is, im not sure what the state of my legality is lol. i know i have 6 months to stay here. then i can easily extend an extra year on a visitor visa.

technically im not allowed to work but i work remotely so i wont run into any big issues.

i've been too lazy to look into it but.. there's no way im giving up NYC salary though.