I'll give you Denver, definitely high quality of life in Colorado. Not Vegas, most definitely not Texas (save for Austin), not Phoenix, and Atlanta is nowhere near friendly unless you work from home and never need to get into a car.
Chattanooga is good, Nashville is good (but getting pricey), lots of space and smart people in North Carolina (Asheville or Raleigh Durham Research Triangle Park). I've heard good things about Des Moines (not a fan of the cold though).
At this point, its just masochistic for SF startups to require their tech staff to live in the area, and throw away so much of their income to landlords.
That's a broad and rather incomplete generalization.
I spent two years in a California high school and two years in a Texas high school. I have seen first hand how terrible schools can be in CA and, conversely, how fantastic they can be in Texas.
For reference, I'm comparing Benicia HS in the North Bay with Seven Lakes HS in suburban Houston.
In California, teachers were restricted to six pieces of copier paper per student per year. One security guard for 1500 students. Ancient textbooks and the most antagonistic administration you can imagine. AP classes? Gone. School buses? Discontinued. Arts and music? Better hope your parents can pay for it.
Between my sophomore and junior years I moved to Texas. Seven Lakes was the most expensive school ever built. We didn't just have a computer science class, we had a computer science department. Our AP US History teacher had more students score 4 or 5 on the AP exam than any other US history teacher in the country.
To Benicia's credit, their band was actually quite a bit better.
And just to underline the difference in affordability, the average home price in Benicia at the time was $629k. Katy's average was $161k.
Safe to say I have no regrets about having left California.
"Texas earns C-minus, ranks 39th in nation on education ranking"
* 52 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in the state are not in school.
* Hispanics had the lowest rate of 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool at 39 percent. Meanwhile about half of black, white and Asian 4-year-olds were enrolled.
* 64 percent of of 3- and 4-year-olds in households earning at least $100,000 or more attend preschool compared to 40 percent of those living in households earning less than $20,000.
* About 44 percent of those enrolled in Texas preschool attended a private school.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/construction-in-new-york-city-go...