There are tons of places with houses that are affordable. Living in a large city, especially in California, Oregon, Florida, New York, or Washington will strain anyone but the wealthy. More sane and slower-paced places that have jobs, or better yet, if you work remotely, work in an inexpensive market and pocket more money for retirement. I've long wanted to move to a remote smaller city with little happening. You can bank a lot of money doing this. There are plenty of cities with houses in the $75-130K range and not dumps, either. People could bail out of expensive cities, make a serious profit, pay cash on the other end, and bank their entire paycheck. We're talking property taxes in the $500/year range as well.