The Great Brain Drain: Why Smart Money Is Ditching Coastal Cities

Here's what's wild—college grads are finally running from New York and San Francisco. Not because they got lower pay, but because even six-figure salaries can't compete with coastal inflation anymore.

The numbers tell the story. NYC one-bedroom rent? $3,738/month. Houston? $1,574. You're literally paying 2.4x more for the same apartment. Home prices are even worse—NYC averages $1,406/sqft while Houston sits at $276/sqft. That's a 5x gap.

So where's the migration heading? Austin, Phoenix, Raleigh for the bigger metros. But here's the shift: smaller cities like Tucson, Fresno, Yakima, and Sioux Falls are now seeing college grads roll in—something that never happened before.

The story's simple: when your six-figure salary gets crushed by $4K rent and $2M housing prices, those Midwest metros start looking pretty attractive. It's not about lower salaries pulling people away anymore. It's about cost of living finally outrunning even the highest earners.