Have you actually seen apartments in Denver that are $500 a month? If you were in a 2k/mo rental in Queens, that's fairly large and/or nice for one couple sharing a bedroom. Denver is not cheap. If y'all can find a place that cheap, please let me know, and I'll move out there too.
We are in a 3rd floor walk-up that is in a safe neighborhood (by NYC standards, there's probably a murder once a year in the neighborhood near the hookah lounges and some streets you shouldn't be on late at night) but a 15 minute walk to the subway, an hour commute to my office, and its a very small 1 bedroom apartment. We walk 3 blocks to do laundry, have roaches, our heater makes loud noises that wake us up and they leak. My previous walk up apartment in Queens with my old roommate that was $2500 for a 2 bedroom that routinely flooded from the ceiling, 10 min subway walk and hour commute, roach problem again, crazy neighbor that would throw things at her husband in the middle of the night, no dish washer, across the street from a loud bar. Don't even get me started about how my hour commute on the subway frequently turns into 2 hours because of our failing infrastructure. Long story short, our standards for housing are pretty low.
We also did research on the salaries we would likely get and they are less for sure but the decrease in cost of living would offset this by a lot. State and sales taxes alone are half of NY's and rent is much much much less. If I was commuting 1 hour to Denver and had $2k to spend on a 1 bedroom I could do very well despite the recent housing crazy in Denver. It's all relative.
Did some research and probably the cheapest I could find for a short term rental is over $1k a month. We may just send him out there for a couple of weeks to couch surf and rent a cheap airbnb and then we may just sign a 6 month lease a month or 2 early so he can move. We were going to have to pay double rent during April anyway. If we do this, I would only be out of work for a few months if I moved at the end of April. Another options is we could move our stuff over there and I could potentially live with my parents at our lease end date if he didn't have a job and I could co-sign for the apartment since I have a job.
This whole process has made me do some reflection. I luckily have an enviable job in a city with many opportunities, a great resume lined with promotions, and a decent savings but I am struggling to move to another city for a better life. I can't imagine trying to do this if I had been let go, living in a city that was losing jobs and was older with a family. I frequently hear people talk about how people should stop complaining about the cost of living in expensive cities or the lack of opportunities in others because they can just move to a better city. Wish the process made it easier for those seeking a better life.
Just going to keep applying every day for now and hopefully my worries on the job search are just my NY neurosis at play. It's been 2.5 weeks of reaching out and applying and we have about 2.5 months left for one person to get a job. Talking this out with all of you has helped me come up with some back up plans though.