Where should I live?

I’ve been thinking about moving to a new city in a year or two. By then, I’ll have some pretty solid savings, and a good amount of experience from my current job.

Where I live now (DC area) is one of the most expensive parts of the country. A salary like mine is enough to rent a room with roommates here. The cost for that starts at about $600 in the outer suburbs (as opposed to the convenient suburbs that are close to the city and have ample public transportation.) I’m talking like, the deep suburbs. There are Wal-Marts out here where the parking lot is bigger than a football field, no sidewalks anywhere, and there’s a herd of tame deer who trample through my back yard. That’s how far away from the city it is. A studio apartment out here runs around $1000— 1200.

It seems like everyone I know here is just scraping by. We’re either living like nuns to save for our future (me) or one mishap away from financial disaster.

I’m living with relatives and saving the extra money to get my own place. But it just doesn’t seem like I can afford the market here. I could go live with roommates, but then I’d be spending more money to do basically the same thing I’m doing now.

Maybe I’d be happier in another part of the country, with a more relaxed pace and a lower cost of living. I mean, $30k is a reasonable income, right? I’ll be in a good position to move and change jobs in a year or two, and it would be a fun adventure to get a new job and a new home at the same time.

I’ve also been thinking of moving to a smaller city outside DC, like Frederick or Annapolis. Both of those have a lot of character, and I could keep my current job and still see friends and family. But my commute would be more than an hour each way, and they are still somewhat outside my price range.

I want to live somewhere with a creative easygoing feel to it, that isn’t too expensive. So clearly, NOT DC. Thoughts? Thanks a lot!