I'm in a nondescript suburb north of Denver (Thornton), though I associate culturally with Denver since I work downtown and tend to do most of my city activities there.

It really just depends on what activities you're into. Fort Collins is a bike riding, beer drinking haven (though both of those are common throughout the state). Boulder is a great place for easy access to hiking and rock climbing outside your door as long as you have a positive reaction to dread locks. Denver is the "big city" and still has decent access to outdoorsy stuff if you're willing to drive an hour or so. Colorado Springs has lots of cool tourist destinations nearby, but is culturally dominated by military families and is much more religious than the rest of the state.

Of course, if you start getting outside of the Front Range, there are a ton of little mountain towns that would be fun to live in, but finding jobs there can be more difficult.

If housing costs are a concern, Denver is not a good option in the short term. We're in one of the strongest sellers' markets in decades right now. All of the builders are catching up from not building anything new for a few years while people were still moving here in droves.

Not particularly....I just thought NO might be worse than most considering the big attraction it is.

A lot of New Orleans population didn't return after Katrina. FMB is right though. Baton Rouge is close, above sea level, and more inland.

Why Boulder?

Just to add to this I would NOT live in Boulder if you paid me huge sums of cash. I have never seen so much pretense in my entire life. They should change the name of that town to Arrogance. I live in Littleton (southwest Denver), and the mountains, cooler weather, and trails are no more than 15-30 minutes away depending on where you want to go. If you move here I would suggest any of the cities on the west side of Denver for quick access to all of the outdoor stuff. I can usually get a bike ride in after work and be home in time for dinner.

Having lived in Denver, Boulder, and Salt Lake, I would pick Park City Utah /Salt lake.

You are in the mountains. Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and Solutitude are 15-20 minutes away as opposed to an hour for A-basin and 2+ hour for vail.

Cost of living is cheaper too.

South Platte Trail?

Bend, OR is beautiful.

It's figuring to explode over the next few years also, so it's a good investment.

Come live in the wine country, get a job in the wine industry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_Co...8California%29

and live by pawnmower as bonus

That's definitely a perk. I-70 in the winter is as bad as city traffic, but it lasts for 75 miles.

I would not recomend New Orleans to live in. Just my opinion.. But in my two visits the whole city just stink stinks. Not to mention my multiple run ins with cracked out homeless people in broad daylight. Cool place to party for a weekend, but I would live there.

Even if it is a pretty gay city.. I have enjoyed both my trips to San Fran.. Seattle is also a nice city as someone else mentioned. I can imagine living in SF is not cheap though

I wouldn't move to either of those places. I had to spend about a month in Baton Rouge, terrible city

Phoenix is where I'm moving soon

Fort Collins, CO; San Diego, CA; Spokane, WA