I think Jazzman's take on it is just as superficial as the people he describes.
I grew up in the Midwest and spent more than 1/2 my life there so I believe I can comment intelligently on it. Yes, you can buy a big house on a big lot, but as that all there is to life? Remember, you are stuck with being in the Midwest, with miserable weather and closed minded people. While that doesnt describe everywhere in the Midwest (Chicago and Twin Cities for example), the stereotype for the most part rings true. It took me coming out here to truly realize what I wasnt missing back "home".
Try starting a business in an emerging field like tech back in the Midwest...good luck. People are extremely tight with their money, not just for investment purposes, but for buying any of your product or service. Everyone will ask you, "Why would you want to do something risky and start a business when you can work for someone else?" Seriously.
Then you get the religious nutbags who dont believe in crazy things like science and evolution who control politics back there. They are stuck in the Middle Ages.
The weather is horrible, it is either sleeting, snowing, and freezing with overcast skies every morning that you wake up in the winter, or it is ridiculously humid, so much that you cant go outside for an evening walk without feeling like you are in a steambath. You are lucky to get 2 nice months of fall and 2 nice months of spring. The rest of the year is miserable.
As for the family part, I have two young girls who are school age and the schools here are as good as anywhere. You can raise kids here as well as in the Midwest. It used to be that you could shelter kids from things back in the Midwest, but that was before the invention of cable TV and the Internet. Kids grow up just as fast there as they do anywhere. Don't believe me--check out how many small town kids in the Midwest are in to meth and having sex too early. Not to mention things are so boring back there in the suburbs that kids are always looking to get into trouble.
Yes, it is over developed, especially in LA, and crowded with people. However, everyday I wake up I feel like I am on vacation. I can make a decent living here, even enough to compensate for the increased cost of living. I can eat at my choice of different ethnic restaurants. People are diverse here, unique in their own ways, and all around, much more interesting to be around. I have the ocean and natural beauty in places like Palos Verdes, Malibu, the desert, the mountains.
In the Midwest, you have FLAT...
That's my take as someone that has lived in the Midwest, Southeast, and now, So Cal. There has to be some reason people continue to move here. I dont see a huge exodus of people moving there, and for good reason.
