Reply #80: How close is that to Denver? We've been to Austin and Phoenix...

[ihavenobias]

We actually considered Denver for a while, partly because the Mountains shield them from a lot of the bad weather (I know, not ALL of it by any stretch).

The thing is, we want something warmer and sunnier than Chicago with a reasonable cost of living. Denver technically fits that bill. But while the high temps are better (especially in the winter, temps are on average 10 degrees or more higher which is huge, not to mention the sun) the low temps are actually worse.

It seems like Denver is very mild during the day but that it gets very, very cold at night/in the morning. Even in the summer it gets chilly in the evening. Don't get me wrong, I like cool temps for sleeping and saving money on AC, but still.

We visited Austin in May during a heatwave and we really liked it. But a May heatwave is still not a July heatwave. Plus those Palmetto bugs are pretty gross.

We visited Phoenix/Tempe AZ two Januaries ago and it was nice, but Austin seemed like it had a lot more going on. Plus the sprawl in AZ is pretty bad.