IT AN EASY YES OR NO ANSWER!
Cost of living was already way high when I was living there back in early 2000s nothing to do with COVID, if you want to blame it on COVID, then blame it on the Democrats leading that state and their crappy actions towards it. Yes also cost of living was high because of Silicon Valley, but my point is that people are leaving because of those reasons. You are not getting what we are saying, you are in your own tantrum hypothesizing why the cost of living is high and why it is a dirty place to live (LA). The point is, people are fleeting that shit hole for other states, specially now that people can work from home through internet, and there are other cities with better cost of living and better internet, Californians that are smart, including those with college degrees and office jobs, are picking up on that and leaving. Because in Cali they can pay up to 4000$ for a 1 bedroom apartment when in Tennessee they can rent a house with better internet for about 1000$, and have fresh air and not having to live with streets covered in human feces and high crime.