There are houses way cheaper than those in Indiana in Costa Rica. Why arent people moving from Indiana to Costa rica??? I dont get it!

Why not Morocco, Bangladesh, or Bolivia?

The price per square foot with the exact same materials, finishes, construction quality, etc - not including cost of land - is 1/5 or less in a state like IN, MS, WI, MN, etc than CA, WA, OR, why is that?

These states are in the same country with the same first world amenities.

But it is the same principle inside a big country like US which is really vast geographically. Look at Europe. Properties in Eastern Europe are still a lot cheaper yet most university educated young people are migrating from east to west. So obviously they value the economic and career opportunities in those big metros in Western Europe and even though flats there cost 2x or 3x they still go.

Just because you can buy cheap house in Mississippi is not going to cause young doctors, engineers, lawyers, other professionals and graduates from top schools to start migrating there. It's just not worth it for them, they are looking at their long term career prospects and can do the math.

Median income in the SFBA: $96,677 Median income in Mississippi: $36,919

Take a bay area income and telecommute from the south and you're really living large.

But really, even at the much lower income levels of the south the money goes so much further.

Taking a bay area income and telecommuting from the south is not an option for the vast majority of residents of the bay area.

Not to mention much taxes, particularly the state income tax.

Then you would also have to live in Mississippi, and getting a job isn't as easy either (even making median) because the place isn't exactly overflowing with non-minimum wage opportunity. If it wasn't for my dad's skills as a nuclear technician, we would have never lived there (BTW, if you want cheap housing and high salaries, go into nuclear power, they mostly built nuclear power plants where no one wants to live).

For sure, but the disparity between median income and home price in SFBA is much greater.