[adkatrit]

I had a cheap place in the outer DC area for a while. 750 a month near a military base with >125k salary as a contractor.

I know some people very well off in Denver, CO as well.

Using public data(data.gov, enigma.io) you can find the areas that have the most positive trend in population weighted with average/median income and percent software jobs and/or locations of companies recently funded on crunchbase.

Might be best to start with a data set of cost of living and just apply functions to the ranking of the index depending on what matters more to you. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/prices/consumer_...

Good Luck!

[kposehn]

I'm going to second Denver as well. Lots of places to live, good job market and plenty to do outside.