Well, I thought I would compare the price of houses between a Southern state to the price of houses in states that are a further West.

Here's a nice little house in Little Rock, Arkansas
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=488&locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=0&mxprice=175000&js=off&pgnum=49&fid=so&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=1140&typ=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5%2C+6%2C+7&poe=realtor&ct=Little+Rock&st=AR&sbint=&vtsort=&sid=0478240F56FFC&snumxlid=1043513550&lnksrc=00002

Nice little house, built in 2000, on 5 acres of land. Price: $99,000 (and that appears to be high, I saw many houses for sale between $30,000 to $50,000).

Here's a similar property outside of Denver, CO
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=24&frm=bymap&pgnum=3&mls=xmls&js=on&fid=so&vtsort=&ss_aywr=&poe=realtor&areaid=25654&ct=Elizabeth&st=CO&zp=&primaryZp=&nearbyZp=&mnprice=0&mxprice=450000&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&typ=1&typ=7&mnsqft=1000&exft=0&exft=issty&exft=0&exft=0&lid=Enter+MLS+ID&sid=0478274E8573C&snumxlid=1043395291&lnksrc=00002

Price: $289,000

And this property is about 40 miles outside of the city. You wouldn't be able to find something in town with any sort of land for less than $500,000.

So, if I moved to Little Rock, I could afford to make a lot less money because my biggest expense (housing) would be considerably less.

Heh, I used to live in a town next to Elizbeth, CO
For the most part it was very rural then but i've been told that the urban sprawl is heading that way and actually the town of Kiowa that I lived in used to roll the sidewalks up at 5pm Friday and unroll at 9am Monday. 15 years ago there were no nice new houses. I'm told thats all there are now. I know there werent any nearby hospitals so you would be driving to Denver (not interstate routes) for work. My mom was a nurse and she did it so I guess its possible. Not my bag though.

Its beautiful country out here. I dont now much about Little Rock except it was Pres Clinton's hometown. I've heard its no metropolis.