What Cities Offer The Best COL/Amenities Balance? (cost, state, America)

[Trillion]

Interested in cities that, while not as grand and expensive as NYC, LA, etc., aren't dull and lacking in things to do.

[RC01]

Chicago?

[Broadrippleguy]

Indianapolis does.
Lowest cost of living of any major US city and America's most affordable housing market.
Indianapolis for a city/metro of 2,000,000 people offers quite a bit.
Instead of listing them all i figure ill let you scroll through this: Official Tourism Site of Indianapolis | Visit Indy
Downtown Indianapolis is very vibrant and in 2011 was ranked as the best Downtown in America according to Livability.com. Forbes also rated Indianapolis #4 out of 10 in America for a great Downtown.
Great Urban Weekend Escapes: Indianapolis - Forbes
Everyone is very friendly in Indianapolis and that was one of the major highlights for our city hosting Super Bowl 46 with amazing success. People even said Indy's citizens are to nice

[waronxmas]

Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philly

[Trillion]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philly

...and of these five cities, how would you rank them?

[BTA88]

Originally Posted by Trillion

...and of these five cities, how would you rank them?

Chicago, Philly, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston

[BigCityDreamer]

The city of Chicago is probably the best bang for the buck in the United States.

[Maintainschaos]

Chicago or Philadelphia for large cities.

Portland and Minneapolis for smaller cities (but still relatively large metro areas).

[Duderino]

In terms of large, more traditionally urban cities, as mentioned several times already, Chicago and Philadelphia will provide you with the most bang for your buck in terms of offering big city amenities with much more affordable real estate options than the uber-expensive quintet (i.e, NY, SF, DC, LA and Boston).

If you're not clamoring for the more traditionally urban living experience, then your options would expand to other larger cities such as Dallas, Atlanta, or Houston.

[BTA88]

Honorable mentions can go to Baltimore as well. It doesn't have the amenities of Philly and Chicago, but it is an affordable urban city with plenty of highlights and good seafood.