Yes you are commuting to your job when offices open. Suburbs of the big Midwest cities have lots of 2.3mm+ prices and you work downtown in finance, tech or whatever. Quite a few inner-city houses built by the original rich classes of those cities demand those prices too.

Go where you are happy, spend as much as you want. Sunnyvale is a cultural desert compared to the Twin Cities, Chicago, Detroit. And on its way to being a real desert too.