The Case for Working in Silicon Valley and Living in the Rust Belt

When software engineer Eric Anderle and his wife, Rachel, decided they were tired of renting and wanted to buy, they quickly realized that any place in their neighborhood—San Francisco’s spiffy NoPa district—would be out of reach. Rather than look in surrounding towns or across the bay to Oakland, the 25-year-olds staged an escape. Last fall they moved into a four-bedroom house an hour south of Grand Rapids, Mich. The monthly mortgage payment on their 3,000-square-foot home there is about the same as the rent on the couple’s old 600-square-foot apartment. Best of all, Anderle didn’t have to give up his sweet Silicon Valley gig at Twilio. He persuaded the cloud communications company to let him not only work but also live remotely. “We really did like living in the Bay Area,” Anderle says. “We couldn’t see a viable path to do that that didn’t involve delaying the things we wanted for 10 years while we saved.”

High home prices have always pushed people to cheaper areas within commuting distance of the office. But the growing acceptability of telecommuting is producing a much more sprawling version of suburban living. Real estate developers who specialize in turning old industrial buildings into upscale condos are dabbling in second- and third-tier cities. Places like, say, Cleveland aren’t just cheaper: They now have the same access to a cortado as your favorite urban enclave.