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Sarah, I live in the SF bay area and have four friends who have moved to different spots in the US in the last year. Here's what they are reporting:

Bettendorf, IA: Part of the "quad city" area, not diverse, cold winters, but housing costs are great, people are nice, schools are good and there is a metro area. She's there to stay.

Washington DC: Great metro area, terrible traffic, better housing costs but not by much, nice in fall and spring. She can't wait to move back here.

Austin TX: Fun metro area, diversity, affordable housing, no long winters. They are happy there.

Atlanta, GA: Diversity, good metro area, housing costs much better than here. She wishes she'd moved to Athens, GA instead because the community is more like SF, but still close enough to Atlanta. She thinks they will move back to CA when her oldest is ready for high school (schools are not great). Humid in summer and they had a dusting of snow this winter.

Don't know if this helps but at least it might get a conversation started for you. If you own a house here think long and hard about leaving. I think it must be darned impossible to buy back into this market after you've left it. Good luck!

Sounds like you are headed on the right path by thinking about what you want. I moved from Chicago to Phoenix four years ago and am quite happy. What I did is make a list of everything I wanted -- weather, housing costs etc. and then picked a city that best suited what I needed. I would continue on the track that you have started. List everything that you want and then one by one go through major cities to see which one matches the best.

Good luck.

San Antonio, TX has about the same climate as Austin and the housing costs are much less.

We live in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida which is just a little southeast of Jacksonville and just above St. Augustine. While it is not a cheap area by any means, it is certainly a lot better than the Bay area. (By the way, that's where my husband and I are both from). It is so lovely here--we live less than a mile to the beach, and we're 20 minutes to St. Augustine. Ponte Vedra is pretty self contained, so shopping,etc. is very close by. Good luck in your search.

Sarah, I live in NY & hear you about the prohibitive cost of living.Everything's expensive here.Auto insurance,utilities,property taxes,housing. I was on a cruise & was talking to a Southerner & told him that my property taxes were 15,000 per year. He asked that's with the "moe-gage" right? WRONG! How about looking into Raleigh NC?

These suggestions are great! It's interesting to see that several of the locations mentioned are already on our short list. We have seriously considered Austin, TX and enjoyed a visit there (what heat!!) and used to live in the DC area, so that's still on our list. My husband is researching Charlotte, Raleigh, Charlottesville, Atlanta and San Antonio. We have yet to visit any of those for any length of time, but hope to do so.

Thanks for all your suggestions and if anyone else has input, we'd love to hear!

We're from the SF area too and are thinking about the same thing !
Have you considered San Diego (and areas close to San Diego)?
Less expensive housing, better weather,
good restaurants, but still in California ! We're thinking about moving there in a year or two (?)

Yes, we have considered San Diego (and this would make my husband's life easier - he's an atty and staying w/in CA would mean not having to take the bar exam again).

Do you have any neighborhood suggestions? We currently live in Lower Pac Heights and like the Pac Heights/Russian Hill area. Also, do you know how housing costs compare? I hear it's less expensive, but I know it's more expensive relative to the rest of the cities we're looking at.

Thanks!

Sarah, San Antonio,Austin & Raleigh are also on our list of reloacation possibilities! Would you please write in & let us know where you chose to move, & why it won over the other locations? Sincerely interested & need the extra help. Thanks -

Nina - I will write in, but this is something we may not do for several months. Have you been to any of those places? Austin is great and though I only went to San Antonio for one morning, I think that if I chose to move to that area, I would pick Austin over San Antonio b/c I have friends in the area and I really enjoyed the music scene in Austin. Very cool.
If you decide on a place, would love to hear where you end up! Good luck!

San Diego stinks!!! Can't go there after Northern California (unless you like major congested freeways, bad air, lower pay scale, truly narrow-minded people and maybe, IMO, the beginnings of small-minded culture!!)

If you ever want to see what it might cost you to move or how beneficial, financially it would be, check out this site to campare the cost of living between where you're living now and where you're thinking of moving. http://homeadvisor.msn.com/PickAPlace/CompareCities.asp

Portsmouth, NH

small city with plenty of charm, history, culture. 1 hour from Boston if you're really in the need of something extra. Much lower housing costs than Boston and especially SF.

Take a trip to Louisville! Wonderful, friendly place with diversity and very good cost of living. Easy to get around here, beautiful parks, river, great restaurants and some of the best medical centers in the USA. No, I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce- just traveled a lot and always want to come back here!

Take a trip to Louisville! Wonderful, friendly place with diversity and very good cost of living. Easy to get around here, beautiful parks, river, great restaurants and some of the best medical centers in the USA. No, I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce- just traveled a lot and always want to come back here!

I live in Austin...It's a great city, but FYI - attorneys here are a dime a dozen. I've been told that the pay for attorney's here isn't as good as in other Texas cities. (Then again, Austin is probably the best Texas city. You take a little, give a little.)

If you move to Austin or SA, be prepared for hot weather. Summer starts around April 1 and continues to about October.... We have many days over 100 (I think we had 40 last summer) and when it's not 100, it's usually 90 something.

I can go on and on, but if you have more questions, email me at lisahhh@hotmail.com (Reference fodors in the subject. I get lots of junk mail and delete a lot!)