I live in Austin, so can only comment in an informed way on that. It has a good economy, cost of living is rising but not anything like the Bay Area yet (and p

I live in Austin, so can only comment in an informed way on that. It has a good economy, cost of living is rising but not anything like the Bay Area yet (and plenty of room to spread so unlikely to get that bad). Progressive city government and conservative state government get in each other's way a lot, but sometimes that turns out to be a good thing, as they blunt each other's worst aspects (sometimes). Lots of live music, lots of high tech companies, meetups, etc. The summer is really, really hot, and unlikely to get any better in the future. Not Phoenix hot, but still really hot. Definitely not as nice of weather as Bay Area.