Four answers for the last four places I've lived, random order:
Where do you live and how is the cost of living? Are you satisfied with the area?
Watertown, MA. Cost of living high relative to the rest of country, middling for Boston area. Figure $1800 for two-bed duplex.
What are job opportunities like?
Quite good, particularly in high tech. Watertown has been a choice for light industrial (like car battery development) and there's a fair bit going on in Waltham. Plus, you have the whole Boston area fairly accessible.
How's the weather? Do you do fun/free stuff outside? Is your area bike-able for most/all of the year? (Or how do you get around, if not by car?)
Weather's not bad. Yes, there's a winter, but the snow usually melts out. I was car-free the whole time I lived in Watertown and bikability's fine. The Charles paths from Watertown Square inbound are usually kept somewhat plowed. Lots of time on the Charles and hiking in the Whites in NH (2-3hr drive.) Decent transit for suburbs: rush hour express busses to downtown, several local routes to Harvard and Kenmore that then connect to the subway. Suburb, but with its own sense of identity. (Highly walkable, too.)
Where do you live and how is the cost of living? Are you satisfied with the area?
Brookline, MA. Figure $1750 for a one-bed apartment, on-par to expensive for Boston area. Great place to live.
What are job opportunities like?
Not a lot in town, but very easy access to jobs in Boston and Cambridge
How's the weather? Do you do fun/free stuff outside? Is your area bike-able for most/all of the year? (Or how do you get around, if not by car?)
Weather's same as Watertown and rest of Boston area. Great paths along the Muddy and in Olmsted Woods. Long runs or rides to the Arboretum. (And hiking in NH, too.) Bikeable year-round; the secondary road network is reasonably connected. Great transit access via C or D green line. And tons of stuff in walking distance.
Where do you live and how is the cost of living? Are you satisfied with the area?
Los Alamos, NM. COL high for NM but that's low for everywhere else. Rents range from $1200 for a new construction two-bed apartment to $800 for three-bed duplex of old government stock. There are things I like and things I hate about the place.
What are job opportunities like?
If you ain't working for the lab and want a 9-5, forget it. You've never seen more highly-educated people (labbie spouses) competing for so few low-paying jobs. Some entrepreneurial types are doing OK running businesses to cater to the lab itself or its employees.
How's the weather? Do you do fun/free stuff outside? Is your area bike-able for most/all of the year? (Or how do you get around, if not by car?)
Weather's just about perfect, 300+ clear days a year. Winters can get cold (sometimes very cold) but average pretty temperate; the elevation keeps the summers reasonably cool. Fantastic hiking/MTB trail system out the back door. Bikeable just about year round weather-wise, fairly compact and walkable, but culturally antagonistic to cyclists and pedestrians (despite decent bike lanes and sidewalks: the engineering's okay, the culture's crap.) Free bus system. No culture or shopping. Someone with the right temperment, a good business plan, and a desire to spend most of their free time in the mountains could do pretty well. A fairly dense but rural small town.
Where do you live and how is the cost of living? Are you satisfied with the area?
Grand Rapids, MI. COL: $900 for a two-bed duplex near a college, edge of the city proper. The place has been getting better in terms of things to do, etc.
What are job opportunities like?
Fair-to-middling. Really depends on your skillset. The GR-Holland-Muskegon triangle has been keeping the rest of the state afloat.
How's the weather? Do you do fun/free stuff outside? Is your area bike-able for most/all of the year? (Or how do you get around, if not by car?)
Weather's nice April through mid-October. Then it clouds up and doesn't clear until January, when the sunshine is made up for by the snow and cold. Muddy until April; spring seems to linger (in the rotten snow and mud sense, not the flowers and singing birds sense.) Not a lot of outdoorsiness but improving, largely based on some long-distance multi-use trails. Bikability varies: the weather really isn't a big limitation, but the paths aren't necessarily maintained for winter travel, secondary roads don't always go through, and main roads rarely have bike facilities. The legal and cultural support for cycling is pretty poor. Bus system is not bad for such a sprawling place in the midwest, which isn't saying much. On the non-free front, culture and music and such are really picking up in GR and are far cheaper than they would be elsewhere. If you're interested in a second-tier city (think Lowell, or Hartford, or Springfield for the general category), GR's not a bad place to consider.