My wife and I are in the same boat and have been looking all over Northern Cali, Oregon & Washington. I’ve found the Portland area to be the most affordable, but have heard it is much more rainy/dreary than Seattle. Seattle is definitely more expensive than Portland, but maybe a bit less than San Diego. There’s a city called Wenatchee that is on the east side of the Cascade mountain range, directly east of Seattle, that gets pretty good reviews.
I’ve also looked around a bit in the Santa Rosa/Healdsburg areas, but they too are pretty rich.
I haven’t looked much in Nevada…I prefer the forest/mountain areas than desert.
