I lived in South Lake Tahoe for 3 years. 3 of the 4 drought years to be exact, and I am an absolute ski nut. It was kind of brutal. But on the other hand, during those winters there was plenty of great mountain biking, trail running and climbing to be had when that stuff wasn't buried under snow.
This past winter (2015/16) was around average for snowfall, but only above about 7,000'. The trend the last several winters has been warmer when it does snow and less and less snow below 7k, which is something to think about when deciding where you'll want to ski in the future. Krikwood has done well with its base elevation above 8k, Homewood, less so.
South Lake is the cheaper, seedier end of Tahoe as you probably know. Surprisingly, the California side is considerably cheaper for housing than the Nevada side pretty much all around the lake, especially on the north shore, with perhaps a few exceptions, like some of the older condos along Kingsbury grade on the Nevada side. The neighborhoods in South Lake are older and usually a little more run down, and each year getting more so. The entire Tahoe region is bleeding families because there really aren't many jobs outside of low wage service industry. There are some, but they are few and far between. The rental market is getting hammered by second home owners renting out on Airbnb instead of doing long term rentals and it's getting difficult for locals to find any reasonable rentals. The housing market has been on the upswing, paralleling gains in the Bay Area, just at a less steep rise. It will likely come back down the way it always does, but only when things start to slow down in the Bay.
Fortunately, South Lake has FINALLY figured out that the future of the town does not lie in the casinos that had their heyday back in the 70s and 80s, but that the regions future is linked to the incredible outdoor recreation and natural beauty that abounds in the area. There is increasing investment in trails, walkable neighborhoods and non-motorized recreation. The town has a lot of potential, but most of the leadership is stuck in the 1980s.
If you can't swing Tahoe itself, I think the towns just down the hill, Reno south to Carson City and Gardnerville are attractive. Not as hot as say Sacramento, affordable and close to Tahoe. I just wish I could convince my wife that they are good places to live!!
Other places... Bend is cool, checks a lot of boxes but isn't cheap anymore and is HOT in the summer. Bellingham is very un-cheap. It probably has the highest ratio of master degree educated baristas in the country. All the CO towns are played out, "discovered" a long time ago and struggling to maintain something resembling their former selves and not a zombie town full of homes that sit empty 50 weeks out of the year, save for Aspen and maybe Breck. Unless you are cool with some place like Leadville. Driggs, ID was affordable not too long ago but the spillover from Jackson is creeping further west each year. Utah outside of SLC is gonna be unusual if you aren't LDS, that's the unfortunate reality. I always thought Wenatchee, WA looked cool, check that place out.
There are endless discussions on places to live as a skier on a forum called teton gravity research if you haven't ever checked it out. I don't recommend starting a new thread, just dig through old posts, tons of unfiltered, useful stuff there, you just gotta dig for it some.