If you can get over the Donkey love, then Colorado Springs is pretty nice. Tons to do and the city's not too big.

We went with a top 3 most important when deciding where to live and it went....#1 no snow, #2 low cost of living, #3 larger city. I could get a job anywhere so that didn't factor into our decision like it won't factor into yours.

We landed on Phoenix for these reasons.

All the best. Finding somewhere new to live is really awesome. Keep us posted!

I've always thought Pensacola Florida would be perfect... you get the beautiful beaches/beach culture/outdoor activities, but in a city of 50k, big enough to have all the things you want without all of the big city BS.

Hey thanks, I will for sure!

How do you like Phoenix? My dad has a buddy that used to live there and loved it, only moved back to MO because he retired and wanted to be closer to grandchildren. I've heard a ton of good stuff about PHX though...

That's a fun one although not in the mountains. I am close South Valley Park, Red Rocks, and Deer Creek trails which I prefer. If I want a bit more cool I go to Lair O the Bear or Three Sisters. So many options on this side of town.

OP, check out the "Moving to Phoenix" thread

You either hate it or you love it because the weather is on the extreme obviously. 4 super hot months with very little break and 8 months of beautiful weather. That sold me. And the hot days you find a pool or stay inside. It does nothing to mess up my commute like snow though!

Tons to do and all 4 professional teams. Very low cost of living. It doesn't have a big city feel because it is so spread out so traffic is pretty good most of the time. You do have to get used to driving though and the miles on your car add up quick. People seem to kind of stick to themselves which you can see as either good or bad.

But we love it here and are not leaving for a very long time.

I've only been there once, and it seemed very nice. I just thought it was funny that 7 of the top 8 cities were west of the Mississippi and none of them were mentioned at all by the CNN people.

I missed how they got started on it, but they started slamming Tucson pretty actively, joking about it in a pretty uninformed way. I think I would prefer Tucson over Washington, DC. I would love to have those people draw a picture of what they think Tucson looks like, because I really think they were picturing some old West town with horses and wooden sidewalks and gunfights. They seemed remarkably uninformed about the western United States.

I'm also pretty sure that they didn't know what Los Angeles is. I think they were assuming that LA was the beach cities and not LA. I can understand generalizing about the metro area in general, but it really struck me just how myopic they were in their worldview.

Check the which state would you live in thread. 1000's of posts. Just recently fell off the front page.

Portland for sure if you want cost efficiency and a cool nice town. It's also only 2 hrs from Seattle and 4 from Vancouver.

Neat. My favorite closest foothill ride is 124 - Deer Creek Canyon to the park. We've probably seen each other a few times.

Tucson takes a beating from Phoenix residents as well though for different reasons. I'm guessing you're assessment of the east coast talking head's knowledge is spot on...

I did a big project in Tucson about 20 years ago and thought it was a fine city. The desert isn't my first choice as a place to live, but I could deal with Tucson if I had to. Of course, it could have changed a lot in 20 years.

Toronto was actually a place that had crossed my mind but I would think that'd be a logistical nightmare...?

Just looks like a really nice place to live lol.

Ah for sure...thanks for the heads up!