If it were down to "had to work as an employee for companies in the local area", I'd have a house in Woodside or Atherton, CA and work on the Peninsula or SF.

If it were down to "had to work as an employee for companies in the local area", I'd have a house in Woodside or Atherton, CA and work on the Peninsula or SF. I hate the government of California and a lot of other things about being in California, but for 10 years of betting on local companies only, SFBA is the safest bet. Bellevue/Kirkland/Redmond is my second choice, and I like Washington outside of Seattle more than anywhere else in the US. Since I now have my own company, I'm fine with it -- if I had to work for Microsoft, another startup in WA, Google Kirkland, or something like that, I'd probably stay. Best overall blend of startups, sane government, qualify of life, great culture, environment, etc. If I had the flexibility to leave, I'd be interested in: Beijing. Kharkov. Israel. Berlin. Hong Kong. As it is, I just got back from a trip to Kharkov, and if I had to hire a lot of ops/admin/tech people, it would be really really tempting. I'm also interested in Utah and Tennessee in the long run, and Montreal.