I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis. I can say that horrible, horrible weather aside, Minneapolis just might be the best place to live in the US. Compared to SoCal, people in Minnesota are nicer, drive better, and less obsessed with money and appearance. Housing prices are better while unemployment is historically lower than most of the country. You also nailed that you can buy a beautiful vacation home on a lake within a couple hours of the city for $100K (although you do have to go through the trouble of opening it up in the spring and shutting it down in the fall so the pipes don’t freeze).
But yeah, did I mention the terrible weather? Most Decembers I fly home for a week, where I spend most of it indoors, complaining that my mom won’t turn the thermostat above 68 at night. I come home to San Diego after and go for a run outside, sometimes in just a t-shirt. Part of why housing is so reasonable in Minneapolis is it’s just a very hard city for the elderly to live in. Most retirees sell their homes and flee south to Arizona or Florida to live out their later years.
