I'm one of these workers. We decided to pack up and move from the bay area to a "tier 2" city pretty early in the pandemic and there's no way I'm going back. My

I'm one of these workers. We decided to pack up and move from the bay area to a "tier 2" city pretty early in the pandemic and there's no way I'm going back. My only regret is not moving earlier. We sold our home we purchased in 2017 and were able to buy a very nice home here in cash, nearly 40% of the total cost coming from equity in that sale. Without a mortgage the budget calculus changes significantly.