Detroit wasn't very springy.
30+% vacancy means it's still vastly overpriced,
Alternative theory: As WFH improves, WFH will increasingly mean "Work from Ukraine," "Work from India," and "Work from Ghana." It will be hard to justify SFO salaries.
There are few advantages to living in SF.
- Central America is a convenient plane hop away, and in the same timezone.
- Parts of Africa and India are anglophone, which makes life easy. Africa is at least somewhat timezone compatible (calls might cut into evening plans, but you don't lose sleep)
The cost-of-living relative to Vietnam is low enough to not matter. There are also middle-income countries where cost-of-living is a bit higher, but with much better infrastructure. Plenty of Southern and Eastern Europe is at about a third of the per-capita GDP of the US.
TL;DR: Travel around and shop for what fits you.
This theory is bullshit. Outsourcing has been a thing for decade. Moving all work to the cheapest possible place has been tried many times, to varying degrees of failure.
- Whether people move with the work
- Telework infrastructure