[thorntonbf]

Selfishly, I'm glad to see that Nashville isn't on this list! Though I'd be interested to see how it compares.

There seem to be a lot of cities that offer good talent with a great cost of living - sort of cities poised for a breakout. I wonder what kind of critical mass you have to have in other areas - i.e. concentration of tech talent, infrastructure, educational resources, etc... to really be a great tech community?

[tsotha]

There's definitely a network effect. And abundance of tech jobs draw in and abundance of tech workers, which draws in companies (jobs) looking for workers, which draws in workers looking for jobs...

That's why you see municipalities failing at becoming "the next Silicon Valley" so often. It's not impossible for new tech hubs to form, but it's not as easy as you'd think by looking at CoL.

[atwebb]

I was pretty surprised it wasn't there as well, though the COL has gone up significantly compared to what it was, it's still relatively cheap compared to some of the major hubs. Though judging by the plates around here, people have already figured out the cost difference.

[bengotow]

Haha me too! I think that it's rapidly converging on Austin though. Getting more expensive every year, more condos going up, etc.