One major shift that could happen is if remote work becomes more popular. Imagine if the majority of tech companies were that way. There would be a lot less risk moving back to the midwest or well anywhere knowing that it would easy enough to find another remote job.
However, this apt observation is not what the article is actually about. Mid-tech jobs are things like "...computer systems analyst, computer network architects, and support specialist...", which are very different jobs from software engineering.
[1] As an aside, CoL adjustments between the Midwest and coastal-state cities are extremely favorable to the Midwest in cases where you can actually afford to buy a house (read: not SFBA). If you buy a house in the midwest, you usually have to be okay with treating it as "not an investment". Whereas a house in Portland, Seattle etc. function as both a place to live as well as an investment likely to appreciate handsomely. Personally, I'm OK treating CoL as a sunk cost and not engaging in real estate speculation during my non-work hours. But from an objective perspective, the CoL pay cut suffered in MW cities is often unjustified given the opportunity cost of not living in an area with more and more predictable real estate appreciation. Selfishly, I wish folks in the Midwest had more success convincing their employers that "cheap land" is not a good justification for severely underpaying their labor force.
"Buy low, sell high" is the adage of any savvy investor -- the markets in SF have been stagnant for years now.
My post was about the Midwest [1]. None of these are in the Midwest [2]. Except maybe Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is technically not Midwestern because it's slightly more than a commute away from Ohio. But it's also actually not Midwestern because it's not a good prototype for a typical Midwestern city.
"The Midwest" does not mean "not the coast".
Also, all three of these are in the "coastal states" I'm contrasting with the Midwest.
> the markets in SF have been stagnant for years now.
Yes, I repeated some rendition of "except SF, which is uniquely terrible even among coastal places" many times in my post. And the problem with SF isn't lack of predictable appreciation. The problem with SF is that you can't afford to make the investment in the first place.
[1] https://ces4thgradewiki.wikispaces.com/Midwest+Region+of+the...
[2] PA and NC are mid-Atlantic and Texas is most certainly in the South.
It seems that there's an opportunity here to incubate ideas at a discount globally by "overpaying" locally.
Are there VC funds that are exploiting this? And I don't mean simply by making margin on the back of exploiting the CoL adjustments, but by drawing on regional talent pools with lower CoLs? I'm shocked there isn't more innovation coming from the upper midwest hub that lies along the belt connecting UICU, Purdue, CMU, etc.
Look at the first destinations reports for those CS programs and you'll see what happens. People leave the region after getting the degree. In droves.
I'd not do SFBA, but other coastal cities with less severe CoL differences pay substantially better than the midwest. You won't be house rich, but you'll be actually rich. And that equals retirement.