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I’ve been looking at this and traveling/living it during the Covid craziness - here are my conclusions of top places FWIW: Austin - it’s grown to be a mini-SF (in the good things) - lots of tech, people, nightlife - but in Texas - so lower taxes, much cheaper (and likely to stay that way, because lots of room for sprawl). Very nice. A bit empty during Covid like all cities, but nothing like SF right now. Boulder, Colorado Springs etc - a lot of Bay Area people have come here recently (and in the past), beautiful nature, tech scene - but fairly expensive (not SF, but still), and real winter here - I don’t know if I see it becoming a big hub, and I don’t know if there would be enough good jobs going forward, but definitely a nice spot. Salt Lake City/Park City - very underrated until recently, affordable, lots of tech people have come out, fairly affordable, beautiful nature and town, very nice vibe, decent tech scene. Real winter here too. Could see this becoming a real contender in the future. Boise - haven’t been personally, but I hear good things from friends of mine. Affordable, decent tech scene, great cost of living. Honorable mentions: San Diego - great place, a bit crazy during Covid and city is a bit shut down (like most cities), it’s a bit expensive (not SF, but still), ok tech scene, beautiful weather. Raleigh/Durham - nice, decent tech, good lifestyle. Pretty spread out (a triangle of three cities), so a lot of driving. Hawaii - this should be the best remote tech hub, but it isn’t yet. Beautiful place, not that expensive (relatively). But you gotta work remote (not much tech locally) and wait a week for Amazon. — Hope this helps! Please add to this list if you have good ideas.. |
Under this reasoning, don't overlook the similar lifestyle benefits of the US Virgin Islands, if you can work remote. Some of them are already the paper headquarters for tax dodge reasons of some of the companies you could potentially remote for. (Maybe they would appreciate the irony of actually having a workforce in their "headquarters".)
Also, too, San Juan (Puerto Rico) is a major, densely populous and diverse US city with most of what that implies in terms of amenities and such (book shops, coffee shops, fast food, etc), if you don't mind learning at least a little bit more Spanish.