It depends on the job. While I don't doubt that is true for a simple web development task, most programmers who live in states with poor economies and no tech jobs probably have not written service-oriented distributed systems on AWS that have handled Google/Amazon/Dropbox/insert-big-tech-company-here size loads reliably with fault tolerance etc. I can see how that knowledge will eventually become more common all over the world, but the companies in the Bay Area will be on to the next technologies and want senior people with 5+ years in SomeNewWebScaleDB and production experience with EvenMoreTrendyLanguage which is still likely to be less common outside of tech hubs.
We'll certainly tend towards more telecommuting and less emphasis on physical location though.
We'll certainly tend towards more telecommuting and less emphasis on physical location though.