The US Midwest and South have a dozen relatively cheap cities to live in where it isn’t depressed.
Housing supply/demand balance is a prime contributor to CoL, and the south/Midwest generally doesn’t have the draconian housing restrictions that the coastal cities have.
As someone currently having moved from the southwest, to bay area, to northeast, and now living in the south, you underestimate the cultural changes. I have relatively little in common with people who grew up here. They're fine people, but they're not people who I can talk to past small talk.
And in a fair number of these places, there's the same hostility to people moving in as the bay area.
The US Midwest and South have a dozen relatively cheap cities to live in where it isn’t depressed.
Housing supply/demand balance is a prime contributor to CoL, and the south/Midwest generally doesn’t have the draconian housing restrictions that the coastal cities have.