I'd put in another vote for you looking at Colorado (along the line from Colorado Springs, through Denver and up to Ft. Collins). There are cheaper areas than Boulder and Arapahoe counties, but like someone already said, check Golden, Erie etc, on the West side of the 25 fwy. I bought my house in Brighton (East of the 25) but I am 40 minutes from Boulder, 25 min from Downtown, 35 minutes from Longmont and 15 from the airport - the last one being a major bonus.
I don't know how you are with humidity, but as I am currently in Texas, I can't recommend it. :) Austin gets a good nod from a lot of people, but my impression with it now (I don't currently live in Denver) is that it's VERY crowded, traffic is a nightmare, cost of living is pretty outlandish. Taxes, groceries, etc is a good bit worse than Denver. Jobs pay less and I haven't seen the boom in jobs that people talked about before I moved here. Of course, I work in IT so... The oil business went crazy for a few years. There are ways to skirt some of those issues, but be prepared.
Then the climate (I have never had worse mosquitoes than here!) can take some getting used to.
Denver has remarkably good weather, but it gets cold in the winter and sometimes you get snow. Even when it gets hot in the summer, the nights are still nice, so I never ran the A/C more than maybe 10-14 days a year total.
I'm mulling over the Pacific Northwest next. I don't know about jobs and cost of living, but I think the JOY of living could be better there. Mass transit and walkability is high on my list for next place to move. I want to be able to go down to one car and never need to use it. :) I want better weather and more nature (Texas is a desert).
California (I spend over a decade there (Redondo Beach/Irvine/Hawthorne/Malibu/Laguna Beach) has great weather, but is crowded with lots of traffic. Taxes are insane, housing is still insane, jobs don't always pay much more than elsewhere, leading to a bad income/cost ratio. You do get the weather and pleasant people and they can DRIVE so you don't die on the freeway. :) STill, I think it would be anti-mustaschian to live there. Sadly. I love it and wish I could justify moving home again. There is nothing you can't do there. Restore cars? Work in entertainment? Ride motorcycles year round? All the fun things are there. You just pay for the privilege.