I escaped a year ago & live just outside of Richmond VA now. We relocated back to the east coast to be near family, and because of my wife's career. I have to

I escaped a year ago & live just outside of Richmond VA now. We relocated back to the east coast to be near family, and because of my wife's career. I have to travel to the bay area at least quarterly, but it has worked out to be 6 to 7 times per year. Given no other constraints, I'd never pick Richmond, as air travel from here to SJC/SFO is not great. I'd much rather live an easy commute from a major airport with direct flights to SJC or SFO. As it is, I can drive 2 (or 4 with traffic) hours to IAD and fly direct with a decent schedule, or I can fly from RIC and change planes with a fairly lousy schedule. The cost of living is so much lower between real estate costs and state taxes that the economics are much better. The day I changed my address from Mountain View to Richmond in WorkDay was like getting a raise. Even if I was a consultant and had to pay for my own travel, the economics would still work out to be quite a better.