Key Takeaways

• The rise of remote work has lured some young people to reconsider whether living near desirable metro areas is still worth the cost.
• Major cities were already experiencing net population outflows before 2020, but the pandemic accelerated the trend.
• Some small-town communities will even pay remote workers to move there (after an application process).

Before COVID, Marc Bollinger, 39, was living a life of millennial tech workers' dreams: Each weekday, he commuted by train from his home in El Cerrito, California, to the Twitter building in San Francisco, where he managed teams of engineers for Thumbtack—an app that connects homeowners with contractors, landscapers, and more. A full kitchen staff catered to employees, and he could spend entire days brainstorming with his team around a large communal table.

Then in mid-March 2020, the office abruptly shut down and work went fully remote. "I left on a Friday, and by Tuesday our badges didn't open the doors anymore," he says.

As the pandemic dragged on, Bollinger and his wife, Emily, a buyer for Peet's Coffee, realized they might be working from home indefinitely. So the couple began considering a move back to the East Coast, where they’d both grown up. Moving could bring them and their 4-year-old closer to family. And since they were working remotely anyway, they could keep their jobs (and Bay Area-level salaries).

So in June of 2021, they made the leap—moving to Easton, Pennsylvania, a small city near Allentown in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Marc had attended grad school at nearby Lehigh University, so they already knew the area. And with his parents just a short drive away, they liked the prospects of impromptu family visits (and occasional free childcare)

Read More