As a remote tech worker who moved from the Bay to a (much) cheaper place - I agree that the expensive places are expensive for a reason - but if one can articulate what specifically they're looking for, it's almost always possible to find it in a significantly cheaper cost-of-living area.

I'm not sure that's true. I occasionally look around and can't really find anything all that cheap that fits my preferences, but maybe I'm too picky.

* Politically blue or at least purple

* Reasonably dense/transitable by something other than a car (public transit and/or bike)

* Wide variety of restaurants/groceries (mostly in terms of ethnicities/cultures), especially Asian food

* Low(-ish) crime rate

The third one is maybe the hardest, because it basically requires a substantial population, though number 2 is pretty hard in the US as well.

> if one can articulate what specifically they're looking for, it's almost always possible to find it in a significantly cheaper cost-of-living area.

Isn't that the basic essential of designing tech - the narrower your specs the less expensive your solution, so articulate them very specifically.

I don't know that I buy "almost always" though. If your spec is world-class _____, you probably need to be in one of a few cities.