re: Which areas of the country--and maybe even a specific area would you move to factoring in

4 cities stand out based on your criteria

Salt Lake City, UT
Denver, CO
Colorado Springs, CO
Boise, ID

I graduated from Boise State University, lived in Boise for 5 years. Would move back in a heartbeat, but your criteria for work opportunities and living close to a big city could remove them from this list. Low wages and if you don't work in a secure profession you could be in a bind.

Edit to add -- Something else a lot of people don't consider when they talk about Boise is how remote Idaho is. SLC is a 5 hour drive away, Portland is 8. Those are your biggest nearby cities. There's nothing else aside from desert, mountains, and small mormon towns in between. It can be isolating, and the airport, while nice and I'd even say a bit experimental (direct flights to NYC every so often), is fairly small.

Again, I'd move back in a heartbeat if it made sense. And when I say "make sense" I mean jobs that would get us a HHI over $225k. That's not easy to find there.