living in LA/SF/NYC is a luxury that people pay a premium for.
Yeah nah. I don't really follow this. Unless you consider terrible traffic and less than idea air quality luxuries. Having said that, I did live in Adelaide for 13 years.
Okay, I'm being too critical, too inflammatory. Big cities bring people together in a pretty special way that enables all sorts of culture to arise that doesn't happen here, in these big country towns, or struggles to exist on the fringes as a caricature of it's big-city counterpart. And I definitely miss that.
Choices, I guess. I can't afford to buy a house in any suburb I'd like to live in in the big cities in Australia. And I'm getting too old to rent or sharehouse. It's good here, 800 rock climbing routes within an hours drive of my house; kayaking and surfing; high-speed internet and Hacker News; a dog; business opportunities we're putting in to action.