CEO explains precisely why companies are moving jobs to smaller cities

Andrew Florance hires hundreds of recent college grads for research and tech jobs for his  real estate data firm CoStar Group. When considering where to open a new 700-person research hub recently he made top-notch local colleges a priority.  But Florance — whose company owns Apartments.com — is also acutely aware of how difficult it is now for his employees, some of them making $45,000 or $50,000 a year, to afford to live in cities like his hometown, Washington, D.C.  As other employers have discovered, many younger workers are choosing jobs that don’t require driving — even if it means turning down more money or a promotion. D.C. wasn’t the answer.  So Florance surveyed markets from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and looked at 10 states closely before narrowing his search to three places with far lower costs of living: North Carolina, Kansas City and Richmond, Va.  Florance announced he’d chosen Richmond, where he will begin relocating employees next month. He said North Carolina’s anti-transgender “bathroom” bill was “more controversy than we want to engage in right now” and said proximity to Washington gave Virginia’s capital an edge over Kansas City.