[sogrady]

Portland, ME. Several colleges in the area, can rent an apartment in town for < $1K, an office with parking for less than half of that, good airport 15 minutes from downtown, < 2 hrs from Boston, tons of outdoor activities (hiking, sea kayaking, fishing, etc), burgeoning startup culture (see: http://startupportland.com), high end craft beer (Allagash, etc) and a great food scene if you're into that (e.g. http://www.bonappetit.com/columns/the-foodist/article/portla...).

The one negative people tend to bring up is the weather, but Portland tracks Boston temps pretty closely. It won't be mistaken for Miami or Southern California, but the foliage is fantastic and snow can be fun.

[allworknoplay]

Agreed, portland is a great, fun, inexpensive city. It's coastal so the weather isn't that bad. The people are wonderful. Maine's biggest problem, from your perspective, is that there isn't a lot of tech, though, so you won't find many other coders like you would in austin or portland, OR.

[whichdan]

Allagash is quite good.