Stats are from 2018, any idea what the trend has been in the last six months? Are a significant amount of workers truly leaving places like SF and NYC for a cheaper place in the Midwest?
The anti-housing people are mostly locals that bought their house for $300k 20yrs ago and pay no property tax on its new value due to prop13.
For example in my midwestern city (Minneapolis) there was a recent article in the paper about home prices in a smaller (but touristy / historic )town ~2 hours away (Duluth,MN). The claim was a lot of people from Minneapolis were moving there.
I've read the same about SF residents moving to Sacramento or something like that.
You can work from home, still hit the office 1-4x a month, see family, etc. so it makes sense.