Tech companies are leaving metros for smaller cities near rural areas with cheaper housing

Houses are bigger and cheaper in Gurley, Ala.
than in big cities (WSJ photo by Art Meripol)

Urban tech companies are moving out of the big cities and setting up shop in smaller cities that neighbor rural areas, Cecilie Rohwedder reports for The Wall Street Journal. Places like Richmond, Va., Huntsville, Ala., Eugene, Ore. and Manchester, N.H. are becoming the new Silicone Valley, mainly because housing in those cities and in surrounding rural areas, is cheaper and offers more bang for the buck.

"Last month, Washington, D.C.-based CoStar Group, an online marketplace for commercial real estate, said it plans to base its research center in Richmond, creating about 730 jobs there," Rohwedder writes. "Founder and CEO Andrew Florance said the firm chose Richmond for its educated workforce, office rents half of those in D.C. and more affordable housing." The same is true of businesses that moved from places like Austin, Boston and San Francisco for Huntsville, Manchester and Eugene. (Read more)