I have been following CityNerd on YouTube, and he has nice lists about underrated cities that have excellent transit if that's important to you. The ones that caught my eye were Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, and they seem cheaper than Chicago, NYC, and Philadelphia.
The Hartford, CT metro area has cheap rentals, and a good art/theater scene. It's a few hours train ride from Boston or NYC. It's worth checking out.
Greenville, SC also has a nice rental scene and is an hour drive from beautiful Appalachian mountains. Less theater stuff, but decent things to do. Asheville is gonna have art/music about an hour away but it's ridiculously priced right now.
St Louis is also a very good city with cheaper rentals. Decent airport, good community vibes, extremely cool music/art scene, definitely worth checking out.
Cleveland is on that list and I quite like it. Great access to nature, too, with Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Lake Erie. It's cheap as hell, and if you live in the right spot you can go completely car free.
Just got back from st. Louis, was pleasantly surprised. The food was great, the nightlife was pretty awesome if you like blues, some of the largest most beautiful parks I've ever seen. People seem super friendly, even more than my home Midwestern city. A little too much Jesus around but St. Louis is pretty alright.
I have been following CityNerd on YouTube, and he has nice lists about underrated cities that have excellent transit if that's important to you. The ones that caught my eye were Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, and they seem cheaper than Chicago, NYC, and Philadelphia.
The Hartford, CT metro area has cheap rentals, and a good art/theater scene. It's a few hours train ride from Boston or NYC. It's worth checking out.
Greenville, SC also has a nice rental scene and is an hour drive from beautiful Appalachian mountains. Less theater stuff, but decent things to do. Asheville is gonna have art/music about an hour away but it's ridiculously priced right now.
St Louis is also a very good city with cheaper rentals. Decent airport, good community vibes, extremely cool music/art scene, definitely worth checking out.
Cleveland is on that list and I quite like it. Great access to nature, too, with Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Lake Erie. It's cheap as hell, and if you live in the right spot you can go completely car free.
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Just got back from st. Louis, was pleasantly surprised. The food was great, the nightlife was pretty awesome if you like blues, some of the largest most beautiful parks I've ever seen. People seem super friendly, even more than my home Midwestern city. A little too much Jesus around but St. Louis is pretty alright.
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The view from the expressway was pretty hit tbh. But the city is actually pretty bikeable/walkable it seems, at least in the areas we visited
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