No PDX? Half the cost of SF or the Valley, located conveniently between SF and Seattle.

Yeah, I'd be interested in folks' thoughts on Portland/Seattle. Considering a move up the west coast from SF.

Amazing things to eat and drink, small and friendly, extremely walkable and bikeable, verdant and fresh, and is extremely close (30 min) to beautiful gorges, mountains, forests, and coastlines. You can get a 1br for $800, or a really fancy studio for $1k, or pay $500 with some roommates.

Do it! Move now.

The quality of life in Boulder is amazing but I don't think it is sustainable unless you are wealthy. I have lived here off and on since the 90s. In the past couple of years it has changed dramatically. The rent is expensive, the picturesque views from within the city will be changing due to new construction (I have lost 25% of the views on my deck to construction in one year) and city council's current goal is revenue, not quality of life. BBC did a segment on Boulder's affordable housing market. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29240704 I'd recommend Denver before Boulder.

Reno/Tahoe area resident here. Oh yeah, +1 for Reno :-)

While there has long been a surprisingly sizable population of engineering professionals living in and working OUT of the area, over the last few years an enthusiastic startup business culture has emerged.

There are multiple incubator / co-working facilities, a convenient airport, beautiful environment and as you note, a favorable tax structure.

Tesla, along with the gaming and defense industries, should really be just anchor businesses in a much deeper technology ecosystem. Reno very much has this potential.

As you say, a real sleeper.

[edit: mobile-typo]

I hear Austin is already getting tough: high rents forcing out exactly what made it cool in the first place.

I personally think the value of being in a hot well known startup city is overrated. My startup is in DC and we're doing fine.

We actually visited Austin to move there, and found the rents/home pricing so much, that we would have to live in a distant cookie cutter home community. We went with Boston, because of bigger job market. Better public transportation and crappier weather (j/k).

Yeah Austin rents are pretty high in the main area of the city now. You can get decent places/rates a little farther out, but the boom has risen rent prices considerably in the last 5 years. Still much, much less than SF/NYC though.

I think Minneapolis should be on that list. I don't live there anymore, having moved to the SFBA.

I don't live in an urban area, but if I did I think it would be MPLS.

A friend of mine just moved to Minneapolis from the DC area. Incidentally, we were talking about this just yesterday and he told me he was surprised at how good the public spaces are there: lots of nice parks, walking/biking paths, urban infrastructure, bookstores, cafes, libraries, &c.

Downside is the winter, but I guess that's what Thinsulate was invented for.

Des Moines gets similar comments, and we have less snow. I went up to Minneapolis for a conference last summer. They had 2-3 feet of snow on the ground. I haven't seen more than 6" in central Iowa in a very long time.

Oh, and central Iowa has over 600 miles of bicycle trail.

Tell me more about the bicycle trail in Iowa. I've never heard about that.

That's what Thinsulate was invented for, and in Minnesota. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Thinsulate_Insul...

Where does Detroit factor into your list? I hear such mixed things?

Curious why you'd pick Omaha over Des Moines. There are some neat areas like Benson, but most of it is suburban wasteland in my experience. It's much easier to avoid those parts of the Des Moines area.

I would add Madison and Minneapolis to this list.