I live in a midwest college town. Unemployment here is extremely low, has been for decades. Housing costs are relatively low as well. I live in a house that in the Seattle area would be over $1M. I paid 20% of that. There are multiple startups for tech here, as well as government jobs, college related jobs, and other industries. So there's no dearth of employment options. If something were to happen, I can commute an hour to a city with a population of 1M.