When my wife and I were looking to move out to Colorado we were amazed at the taxes. I wanted to become a ski bum but have a real job.. None of the ski resorts would hire me... I wasn't bubbly enough... you have to have that personality, even for a backroom job.. I was looking for an IT job, at that time I was a software engineer. But they wanted the same personality that they present at their front desk in the back room... So we retreated to the Boulder area, figured I can still commute to the slopes.. A bigger house than what I have now was 800 a year. then the next year we went back, the price for houses was off the charts... the Californians were moving in, in mass, driving up the prices.. Oh well.