Weather/Cost of Living/IT Jobs & Good Economy/Singles 25-35yrs/Culture - WHERE? (best, better)

[jkozlow3]

Title pretty much says it all. I will be working from home full time in the near future and can therefore live anywhere. If you could pick any city based on the following criteria, where would you go?

Decent weather
Decent cost of living ($1000ish/mo for a 1 bedroom apartment in a hip/fun area of town)
Good IT job market & economy overall (I don't want to stay with my current employer forever and want to be in a vibrant, growing town)
Good population of attractive 25-35 year old singles (not just 21-22 year old college kids which sometimes skew the numbers in "best cities for singles" surveys)
Culture (diverse people, restaurants, etc)


I've been doing a lot of research lately and plan on visiting some potential relocation candidate cities in the near future. As it stands right now, I'm not coming up with many cities on paper that meet my needs better than Dallas. I've never been, but plan on visiting soon. Are there other cities that you think I should be considering?

Thanks!

[PDX_LAX]

You might like Austin.

It's a top 5 city for high-tech, possibly 2nd after Silicon Valley. From what I hear (I've never been to Austin btw) it is spared the humidity that Dallas and Houston get but still enjoys a sunny climate. It has a reputation for being a young and vibrant city with good night life. Probably more expensive than other places, but not as bad as anywhere on the west/east coast. What's not to like?

[Craziaskowboi]

Cairo, IL.

[polo89]

Austin.

[jkozlow3]

I'm not sure Austin has all that many IT jobs. For example, I'm a business analyst and Dallas has 6x the number of BA's on monster.com as Austin. I've also heard that Austin typically has tough competition and suppressed wages due to the number of college grads who want to stay there. In addition, I've heard it's not a particularly cultured/diverse area in regards to population, restaurants, etc.

I'm not ruling Austin out - that's actually where my original search for a new city started. It wasn't until I started reading things on the Austin boards here that I saw a lot of people recommending Dallas over Austin to people who were looking for similar things as I am.

Not sure what's up with the Cairo, IL suggestion. Maybe the person who recommended that misread my post and thought I asked to name a random city in the middle of the country that no one's ever heard of instead...LOL

Other suggestions for cities??

[ghett61]

Nashville, TN

[jkozlow3]

Originally Posted by ghett61

Nashville, TN

No IT jobs to speak of unfortunately.

[jkozlow3]

Come on, doesn't anyone else have some suggestions? I don't think I'm looking for things in a city that a large majority of single 30ish year old professionals would be looking for. I just don't want to overlook somewhere that might end up being a great fit.

Also, since I can no longer edit my first post, I want to elaborate on "decent weather" since that's highly subjective. I HATE bitter cold and/or frequently overcast weather. I don't necessarily need tropical winters (although nice, I realize this would knock most cities out of contention) so long as I see the sun pretty frequently and there aren't too many days below 30-35 degrees. I grew up in Cleveland and the winters can be bitter cold and CONSTANTLY overcast. I've also been to Seattle a lot for work (never in the summer unfortunately), and I couldn't deal with their continually overcast weather - it's do depressing.

Keep the suggestions coming! If you were in my shoes, where would YOU go?

[Akhenaton06]

The two cities that stick out in my mind are Austin and Raleigh. DC is another good choice, although the cost of living is higher and winters can be crappy.

[Rachael84]

Geez, is there ever a thread where Austin is NOT recommended? it's not the be all, end all.