COVID certainly was the thing that made this arrangement possible for me, though it's an open question how sustainable it is. Every all-hands for two years now has started with our CEO telling us how "energizing" it is to be back in the office. Things are a little different for us Linux weenies (sorry, I mean DevOps professionals) but I still kind of see the writing on the wall. That said, the housing situation is such (I brought enough Big City tech-job savings with me that I effectively own it outright, though rates were so low at the time that I do technically still have a mortgage) that I can now easily survive and even thrive with a nonprofessional job.