Joe Dopp, 39, a former roofer and surgical scrub tech, took his family of five to Seattle this year from a small town on Washington’s Pacific coast where second homes and tourism defined the economy, and it was even harder, he said, to earn a decent wage and afford a home. He spoke fast, sitting on a mattress in the family’s room, words tumbling out.

“I made $12 an hour. For two years, I didn’t get a raise. I asked for one. I was told no, when other people had gotten them. I still don’t understand that. I did everything I was supposed to do, but that’s one of the main reasons I said, well, if we’re out, we can go to Seattle or somewhere else and actually have an opportunity.”

The tech boom, Mr. Dopp said, is clearly making some people very rich, but that does not bother him a bit, because it is also creating construction jobs that he is qualified for and ready to take. “I never got a job from a poor man in my life,” he said. “I don’t mind people making their money.”

Chelsie Brown, 32, Mr. Dopp’s partner, talked about the things left behind.

“When we had an apartment, we could take showers, cook dinner whenever you wanted to, could eat whenever we wanted to, could have groceries in the house, we had furniture, beds to lay in, blankets – we had security, you know. We actually had stuff that we loved.”

On the road, it was all so different.

“I did a lot of meal planning: This is what we’re having. But when it came down to meats, I would have to get it that day because refrigeration was nonexistent. Anything we had, foodwise, we had to put it in our car.”

‘Another Something You Can’t Overcome’