For example, Northern California has undergone a "brain drain" to states like Texas, Florida, Colorado, and Utah.
Before the pandemic, the Bay Area already had more people moving out than into it, and the trend worsened from COVID. The number of people leaving the region almost quadrupled in 2020, and since September 2020, the outflow averaged 49.8%, according to moving company moveBuddha. This means that two have left for every person who has moved to Silicon Valley in the past year or so.
The office vacancy rate spiked to 16.7%, a phenomenon that has not taken place in a decade. Meanwhile, many tech companies allow their employees to work from home indefinitely or move their offices to places like Texas for cheaper rent and zero state income taxes.
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Tech executives explain that the pandemic forced them to take stock of their lives and gave them a new list of choices because of their high salaries and power to work remotely.
"We looked at our lives, and it was a choice between living somewhere expensive, crowded, and filled with struggle, or living in a place with better schools, a more small-town feel, and generally a better place for a family. It just made a lot of sense for us," announced Mike Rothermel, a Senior Product Designer with Cisco, who moved from the Bay Area to Boulder, Colorado, during the pandemic,
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Tech industry insiders explain that the opportunity to be closer to their families and be part of a closer-knit community while having similar career trajectories forced them to consider more rural and suburban lives.
"One of my happiest times everyday is going out and plucking the eggs from my chickens," announced Adam Sharp, Twitter's former head of news, government, and elections.
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"Many people want that simple slice of life that gives them real pleasure, I've heard this from many friends in the tech industry," stated Sharp, who now resides in his hometown in a suburban part of Connecticut after spending most of his career in large cities where tech companies have traditionally flourished.
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Tech scholars explain that much of the charm of moving away from Silicon Valley to other places like Texas or Florida is due to the narrative created by some Big Tech CEOs that California is no longer an innovative place for businesses to prosper.
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"A large part of what causes people to move is the mythological element created by Elon Musk and others who say that California is not the future," announced Ramesh Srinivasan, a tech and sociology professor at UCLA.
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