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It's 102 degrees in Las Vegas now 113 degrees in Phoenix = no outdoor activities
You do stuff in the mornings at sunrise not at the peak of the day. I mean you could if you brought four gallons of water with you but I still don't recommend it. The heat lingers for some time in the evening and comes up quickly in the mornings so it's really the only time to go hiking, it can reach triple digits by 9 am.
Another issue I have with the cities is , my company is not everywhere I have to go where my transfer could take me . Otherwise places like Sedona , flagstaff , las cruces and sante fe and Asheville would top my list .
Sedona is insanely expensive, it can be argued to be at SoCal levels I think given its picturesque setting. Most expensive place in the state. It's pretty much Arizona's equivalent to Santa Fe.
Flagstaff is also very expensive and gets 100" of snowfall a year which is about double of the Twin Cities and does often snow into April and May. It is definitely not somewhere you want to live if you don't want a winter, but that's why Flagstaff is such a good ski town. You can't have your cake and eat it too, I suppose.
Santa Fe is also expensive.
The only "mild" places in the inland West IMO would be Denver and ABQ which even then can be a mixed bag. Prescott has the same weather as ABQ but Prescott is a retirement town nowadays so I don't recommend it unless you are old, I know people my age (21) living there and they hate it for that reason. ABQ is the only one that is decently priced, it is average COL compared to the rest of the country so it isn't necessarily a bargain unless you are coming from the city or something. I live in arguably ABQ's twin which is Tucson and I would have to pay quite a bit more to live there since Tucson is the definition of dirt cheap. And believe me when I say the Southwest isn't for everyone, it's very different compared to the rest of the country. Lots of Spanish, if you're not a Hispanic you'll be a minority, and overall a different culture. Phoenix is the only exception, and Las Vegas if you count that to be in the SW region. Flagstaff culturally is Colorado so that too.
I still think you should be looking out East if you truly want good weather and affordability. The "cheap" places out West are where I live and again it's insanely hot. I'm defining cheap as below average COL. Otherwise you will see average in places like ABQ or higher.
Budget I would say just to play it on the safe side I would say max 1000-1200 a month 1 bedroom I could afford more once I get more raises and the person comming with me gets a job .
I love Vegas every time I'm there , and I don't gamble it's something about the area and I like dry heat . But the issue is , my company seniority there would be relatively non existent so I would be working outside in the middle of the day all summer
The only place that has this truly you already eliminated because of COL. Think hard here, you want what almost everyone else wants, of course COL for a place like this would be high. For there to be low COL there has to be something "wrong" with it, whether it be no jobs, crime, bad weather, etc. When there are more "good" things, the COL will rise to meet increasing demand. This is why California is downright unaffordable for most people, because it has a lot of "good" things and very few "bad" things. In the Los Angeles/San Diego area you can pretty much do anything, ski at Big Bear, surf, desert, the mildest weather that exists on this planet, big cities that have jobs and good city amenities, etc. and all that has increased housing to the astronomical prices that you see today. Denver and PNW are seeing something similar for the same reasons, booming economy, great outdoor activities, and good weather and have become by your definition unaffordable. It is the trifecta for all people and places that truly have this will be expensive always until the end of time unless a Detroit type of situation happens to them, even then because of their desirable locations would pick up pretty quickly.
You're going to have to give something up out of your criteria. If you don't want humidity you will either have to give up cold winters or hot summers. The West, outside of California coast, has two options, sweltering summers with warm winters or mild summers with brutal winters. There is no in-between it doesn't exist. COL out West is also generally higher from what I've seen in comparison to the East because of so few cities (seriously, most Western states have maybe one or two places for good employment and even then their employment rates aren't necessarily the best), lots of public land which reduces the supply and the West is desirable for a lot of people. So somewhere east of the Mississippi I suggest for you based on the COL factor.
Can we create a filter that automatically detects "mild weather", "outdoor activities", and "affordable" so when someone tries to submit a thread saying this it directs them to a page that says IT DOESN'T EXIST. This thread has been done a million times, do people not know how to search things on the Internet?
Your assertion that if the COL is low that "something is wrong with it" is flat wrong. High COL comes mostly (not totally) from high taxation and government/developer-imposed high density. West coast, Denver, and the I-95 corridor from DC to Boston mostly have the COL that's out of the average American family's budgets. Metro areas in TX, NC, SC, GA, VA, TN, FL are general examples of great economies, warm sunny weather, good recreational assets, and visual beauty. Their growth rates speak for themselves. The weather thing is very relative. Though the PNW is "mild", the drizzly, cloudy, dreary weather would drive me nuts. CA's ocean water is too chilly for me to enjoy (give me Atlantic beaches any day). I'm aware of what the OP was requesting, so I'm with you on that. But to say low COL = "something's wrong" is a very slanted and/or misinformed concept.
Budget I would say just to play it on the safe side I would say max 1000-1200 a month 1 bedroom I could afford more once I get more raises and the person comming with me gets a job .
I love Vegas every time I'm there , and I don't gamble it's something about the area and I like dry heat . But the issue is , my company seniority there would be relatively non existent so I would be working outside in the middle of the day all summer
Nah, too hot and humid. If the OP could tolerate hot and humid it opens up a lot of possibilities.
But seriously, you need to give us a list of the best job openings.
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