Location is basically an extortion racket enabled by the economic collapse of the U.S. outside of a handful of star cities. With NIMBY policies, people in economically vibrant locations keep supply artificially low. This way, a class of people who've ceased providing value can still enrich themselves on a self-sustaining pattern of clueless talent rushing in for the gold rush.

What we see is that most of the country is dying-- that's why the real estate is so cheap in places like Jamestown-- but that's driving the costs in the few not-dying stretches to obscene levels.