My wife and I use to dream about moving out west. Always pictured wide open areas with pine as far as the eye could see and a creek or stream around every bend. Flew out 12 yrs ago to scope the area around Colorado Springs(100 mile radius).
After seeing housing costs, number of people, job opportunities, etc,. we quickly changed our plans. Realized back east ain't so bad and in much of Pa, Oh and middle/western NY a fella could buy very good land with excellent hunting for around $1,500/acre(up to around $2k +/-). Sure jobs were harder to come by and paid less but the cost of living was so low it more than made up for it. There's also the added benefit of knowing Californians will never look at this area to overrun.
Just saying sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
