There is a reverse migration of sorts back to the rust belt and Deep South (well, Georgia and Tennessee at least), and most of that migration is driven by cheaper housing and cheaper cost of living. And this is really how it should be, we will never be able to build past demand here in Seattle without Chinese construction powress, and the unions and residents would never allow for that anyways. However, Toledo has plenty of nice places to live in (my dad was in nuclear power, so I got to live in a lot of these places also). Jobs are kind of moving with the lower COL flow, it’s just too bad the tech companies chickened out on WFH or we could have solved so many problems.

> without Chinese construction powress

We need to be honest in calling this what it is: yes the Chinese have incredible construction capacity, but the far bigger reason why their cities are growing so fast is because: they essentially have zero personal or corporate property rights in urban zones.