I think it depends how big it must be to consider "large", but there are tons of California ex-pats living in the Raleigh-Durham area, still working in tech/biotech/pharma/engineering, often for CA-based companies. Most of them arrived in NC because of CoL reasons, having sold a family home in CA and paid cash for a much nicer one in RTP... then likely a beach house a few years later.

If you've experienced life on the west coast, the weather (humidity mainly) on the east coast (and midwest) just doesn't cut it. It doesn't snow enough to have worthwhile skiing, and when it is warm outside, it's uncomfortably humid.

There's plenty of snow for skiing in the Midwest. There just aren't any mountains. In Michigan the 'big' places have 500 or 600 feet of vertical, with the modest outlier literally in the middle of Lake Superior, so it takes forever to get there (http://www.mtbohemia.com/ ).

Yes, I was referring to Northeast about the snow, that have somewhat ski-able "mountains". In general, the quality of outdoor activities is so much greater on the west coast that my friends and I would just fly from NYC for trips than go out locally. Plus you avoid ticks and lyme disease.

The northeast is already so expensive, and is GENERALLY richer in euro-centric history and old-money, which makes it less of a draw for adventurers.