Portland and Austin are the very essence of "trendy city" those places are very expensive. I'm not arguing that people move to small towns. There are hundreds of cities in the US with 100,000+ populations (not even including the metro areas). The idea that each of these cities is unaffordable and without a job market is just wrong.

Everyone wants to live in NYC, SF, DC, Miami...etc because the other areas aren't cool enough for them.