We have lived in 14 houses in 8 different cities across the country from Lancaster, PA to Concord, CA. Our favorite place was Greenville, SC for weather, location, and people. It has grown substantially over the last few years and has attracted a lot of people from Atlanta and the Northeast so it is more crowded and expensive. Cincinnati and Kansas City are really nice mid-size cities with a lot of good restaurants and things to do. Most people are friendly and open to new friends except in a few pockets. Kansas City is centrally located and has more blue sky days than Ohio cities, but Cincinnati has the river and beautiful hills with lots of trees. I think it has one of the nicest skylines in the country. We like the Cincinnati area because family is here, but would avoid living in the city limits or Hamilton County due to incompetent government and high taxes. Warren County is much nicer and better governed. We definitely like Cincinnati better than Cleveland or Columbus.
Lancaster, PA was really nice because of the character provided by the Amish farms combined with proximity to bigger cities (Philadelphia and Baltimore). Raleigh, NC was also a nice area and has Duke and UNC, as well as good health care. It was more expensive than Greenville, likely due to the transfer of technology companies from the Northeast. We really didn't like living in St. Louis or Chicago areas for various reasons.
We had originally planned to move to McCormick, SC when we retired, but ended up in the house where I grew up in Cincinnati. McCormick is about 45 minutes from Augusta, GA and slightly farther from Greenville, We bought a lot at Savannah Lakes Village, which is a nice retirement community with two golf courses and on Lake Thurmond/Clarks Hill Lake. It's a great community for those who like to play golf, hike, boating, and meeting other people from all over the country. Here is the website. If I was more serious about golf, I would definitely move there.
savannahlakes.com
There are good things and bad things about every location. We prefer living where there are seasons, diverse nice people, low crime, reasonable taxes, and low government involvement in our lives.