> that is why you see lot of brain drain on Eastern facing US states

Where do you see this? I see Greater Boston, Albany, Ithaca, State College (Penn State), Greater DC, Charlottesville (UVA), Raleigh-Durham, Ann Arbor (UMich), Urbana-Champaign, Madison (UWisc) in the 'brain gain' category, all anchored by one or more strong universities, while a few smaller metros in Rust Belt states that are missing these amenities and are on the rural periphery are showing in 'brain drain'.

And I'm pretty sure that random blue spot in Florida is Gainesville, home of University of Florida. There's certainly no major urban center there; the population just about doubles during football weekends. But the university serves as an anchor for startup activity.

As an inhabitant of Raleigh-Durham, I can testify that its "brain gain" goes beyond the three major universities in the area (NC State, UNC, and Duke). The "Research Triangle Park" which sits snugly on the border between Raleigh and Durham has offices for a great deal of major companies (typically R&D offices), but Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, and Morrisville proper all have plenty of businesses to offer, too (e.g., Epic Games and SAS in Cary, RedHat in downtown Raleigh, Cognitect (of Clojure and Datomic fame) in Durham, etc.).

The culture in the area is great, and there's no better place for a craft beer enthusiast to live. Couple the excellent job market with the low cost of living, and it's a hell of a nice place to live. Of all the places I've lived, it's by far my favorite.

The places you mention are doing great which is fine but Pennsylvanian, Maryland, Ohio, Georgia & Virginia look at the map there are so many pink section. Also I have friends in this areas who ended up moving since their industry closed down.

Per the map,

VA drain: Lynchburg; gain: nearby Charlottesville, Roanoke, Richmond

MD drain: Cumberland; gain: nearby Morgantown (WV), greater DC

PA drain: York; gain: nearby metro Baltimore (MD), greater Philadelphia, State College

OH drain: Toledo, Lima, Mansfield; everywhere else neutral

GA drain: Valdosta, Macon; everywhere else neutral

VA and MD both have one small patch of pink amidst vast swaths of blue. They seem to be doing great.

> while a few smaller metros in Rust Belt states that are missing these amenities and are on the rural periphery are showing in 'brain drain'

I think that just looking at blobs of color is not particularly useful as some metro areas are much much larger than others.

> Pay-scale of an engineer in silicon valley is much higher compared any other state.

Until you factor in cost of living. Last I checked Austin has lead in cost-of-living-adjusted salaries for the last few years.

Unless you have large, fixed expenses like student loans. Then, the larger absolute salary wins in spite of things like housing (the primary driver of regional differences in COL) being more expensive.

Or cars, or even Apple products. People love defending Austin, Boston, etc. Cost of living only applies to food and housing, more of less. After that $20-50K is paid, cost of living does not apply to anything you spend past $50K.

Cars and Apple products are luxuries. We are, after all, talking about the cost of living, not the cost of living luxuriously.

Are you basing this from base or total compensation? Equity payments in the bay area are quite high

That is a very good point. When businesses close down or leave town, the professional service industry follows. All of those doctors, accountants, lawyers, psychologists, physical therapists, and so on need people with good jobs to support their income, so for them there's no sense in sticking around when theirs are the kinds of industries that reliably expand and contract with the economy as a whole.