I want beauty, culture/big city amenities(great dining, museums,live music venues, shopping), decently affordable cost of living, big water for sailing my boat, and yummy sushi…oh yeah, and sunny weather!
Chicago has great big city appeal, but has miserable winters and there is a lot of crime.
Seattle has pretty good amenities, poor on museums, it’s just beautiful, but the gloomy weather can be a real drag – especially temps of 50 degrees in June. Also home prices are close to San Diego prices, it will be interesting to see how their housing bubble deflates. (Oh wait, there’s no bubble in Seattle. lol )
I love San Diego, but the downtown area is “fake” and touristy, and just not affordable.
Austin is very affordable, but I would say overrated – it’s average on beauty and just not as hip and cool as some people would like it to be.
