Best place to live?

Chatter sounds like my future hubby...cept the fishing...thats me[] And we have decided after he is out we are going to Alaska (its not always cold there!)

Oregon & Washington, though I don't know about jobs for you (not sure what you're looking for). Willamette Valley and whatever it's called in WA are pretty wet. The 'housing' economy really crashed in the Bend and Redmond area so prices are pretty good over there (sort of high desert but still mountains/trees/fishing over there). Southern (equivalent to Willamette Valley type terrain) Oregon around Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford is somewhat warmer & drier, though not hot like California. I've lived other places but I don't think they meet your needs. My personal dream place to live is the Fall River Valley in N. Cal. Not many jobs, though, ...which is why I'm here and not there. [] San Diego has the most awesome weather of anywhere in the continental U.S. and lots of jobs for you, however it might 'fail' in some of the other departments. LOL

NYS has military bases.  LOTS of trees, rivers and streams.  We seldom get major weather other than snow storms.  We have all four seasons.  We have taxes.  We have a lot of public trails, hiking, biking, truck/4 wheeler, and horse trails.  A lot of abandoned farm land to the east of me, going toward Albany.  Go north about 60 miles and you have the Salmon River...you guessed it, a great place to fish for salmon.  We also have the St. Lawrence Seaway. Go north  and you have lots of mountains.  Go south and the land is more rolling and doesn't get the amount of snow the northern part of the state does.  Hay is usually plentiful and good.  Lots of local grain here.  Housing prices are from super cheap to super expensive.  The township I live in has no zoning.

Have a good time deciding where you want to go. &nbsplanning can be fun.

Texas, it's not always hot here. Only July and August. 
I like to think of it as reverse winter.[]

I've lived in CA, WA, AK and I wouldn't do AK, 6 mos of snow to the point that it's hard to ride..... but amazingly green and wonderful fishing!  I lived on Whidbey Island in WA and it was neat except for being stuck sometimes if the ferry couldn't run.  It does rain a lot in the winter but I did a lot of riding, wonderful logging trails, green, good fishing, not sure of prices anymore.  When we left we couldn't sell our house for a while but values are a little better or at least were for a while there.
 
I've only lived in Southern Cal and where we are at is not very green most of the time and gets hot in the summer but the fall, winter and spring are wonderful.  My dad lives closer to San Diego and it's nice and cool there but not very green either.  My aunt lives in Santa Rosa which is north of San Fran. and loves it.  It is much greener up there and not as hot, more rain in the winter for sure.
 
My riding buddy and her husband want to retire in Colorado.

Alaska - too cold. Washington/Oregon, too wet. He's looking along the rockies from Montana to NM. I was thinking about CPG's. He's mentioned NM before. He loves CA. I'm thinking northern is too expensive. He mentioned Corpus but it can be doggone hot there! It would be nice to know where I'm going to end up! There are a lot of great places in the US. Parts of KY, Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado looks really good.

Redmond & Bend are on the East side of the Cascades. Not wet there. Ole Bean and Mane Thing ride over there so you can see some pictures in his trail riding thread. Only the coast and Willamette Valley are wet in OR. People think Oregon:Wet because that's where most of the population is. Same with Washington State. East of the Cascades is dry.