Phoenix is still pretty affordable but not what most would call liberal culturally, but, the city government itself is pretty liberal. Tucson is pretty "blue" and is even cheaper than Phoenix. A smaller town out west that trends a bit liberal but is cheap would be Missoula, MT or kinda/sorta Flagstaff, AZ. But, I agree with other posters that this is the mid west/great lakes wheel house.

Yeah I wouldn't call Phoenix liberal at all. While the city government has majority Democrats (albeit in ostensibly non-partisan elections), it is a slim majority of lite Democrats, with an outspoken conservative minority. And the metro area was the largest population center to vote plurality Trump in 2016.

Tucson isn't a bad suggestion though. Cheaper and more liberal than Phoenix.

My impression is that Flagstaff is too expensive to qualify.

How expensive is Albuquerque? I've never been, but it seems to have a low profile despite being a sunbelt city in a relatively liberal state.

New Mexico is fairly Democrat but not really 'liberal' but I think ABQ is middle of the road and is pretty affordable. Tucson seemed more liberal from my impression...given the university.

Flagstaff has by far the highest cost of living in Arizona. It's a tiny blue dot in a sea of red but by no means affordable.

I've been obsessed with geography and cities since I could write.

To this day I know more about Beijing than I do New Mexico. Such a weird place to me...

There are plenty of nice houses in-between "bombed-out" and 200k. It is not one extreme or the other.

Seattle, Chicago, or Philadelphia. If I had to pick a cheaper, but still liberal place to move to, it'd be one of these cities.

Baltimore?

New Mexico is blue, but not overtly liberal. Santa Fe is more liberal than other places in the state. As a whole, New Mexico is not as socially liberal as places in, say, New England. They are big on larger safety nets and welfare or handouts, depending on how you look at it, because the state is poor and more people need it there.

It may be accurate to say that New Mexico is more like the Black Belt or Rust Belt than Boston or San Francisco or Portland when it comes to politics.

New Mexico is gorgeous but has a non-existent economy aside from government and some of the research labs plus some generous tax benefits for film and tv production.

My gf hates it, but Albuquerque is my ideal big city, were into ever want to move to a bigger city.

Something to consider is that even if a city itself is "blue", the "red" state government is in charge. Republican governors and state legislators have made it a habit to pre-empt local government decisions with state laws if it is politically worthwhile for them to do.

For a liberal city to be able to reflect the will of its people, it has to be in a state which is overall more moderate or balanced between the two parties. Or be such a dominant portion of all votes that it can't be told what to do. Again, examples would be Minneapolis or Denver.

Oil and gas is a major contributor to the state's economy, and especially to its tax revenues. Eastern New Mexico is easy to forget about, but it does matter a lot. It has oil fields, refineries, mines, agriculture, and bigger plains towns like Roswell, Hobbs, Carlsbad. New Mexico as a whole just doesn't have a lot of people so these places likely represent a nontrivial percentage of the population and GDP.

Seattle, and to a lesser extent Chicago, are only cheap if you are from the Bay.

I think you can find liberal cities in even some of the red states, and conservative pocket in cities in blue states. For example, New Orleans, Ft Lauderdale, St Petersburg, and Atlanta, and even the city of Dallas itself as relative liberal but surrounded by conservative areas. Not sure what you consider 'cheap', but places like Columbus and Pittsburgh, and even Philadephia and Chicago are more affordable than NYC and the West Coast. Are you looking for an area that will undergo a progressive transformation and growth spurt like Denver and Colorado has done? Tough to speculate, but 30 years ago Illinois was Republican and conservative and Chicago had strongly conservative sections of the city despite being democratic.

I'd say Minneapolis is the obvious candidate here. Also maybe Baltimore? Though it doesn't have as strong a progressive bent, it's in one of the more liberal states.

In other parts of the midwest, I think you could make a case for Milwaukee, but Madison is no longer affordable.

Others, I'd say yes, perhaps Tucson and Albuquerque, which are fairly interchangeable. But Tucson is easier to move to/find a job from out of state - NM is very insular (part of why the culture has remained so unique).

Outside of ABQ and Tucson though, the pickings are very slim for affordable and liberal places in the west - the liberal college towns or progressive small cities tend to be very expensive.

In the south, I first thought of the research triangle, but i think prices have gone up to the point where it's no longer affordable.

Is Dallas considered a liberal city with all of the transplants lately? Those property prices are just sweet.

Quite affordable compared to NJ and especially California.

It's not coastal liberal but it's still fairly liberal. All the major Texas cities are now. Ft. Worth is probably the only major conservative city left and that's changing.

really, every "city" is probably blue leaning by default even if the metro votes red. so really, this thread should be whats the city with the lowest cost of living? your answer is fort wayne, indiana!

It's still relatively affordable although the COL has been increasing as with most other growing places.

Minnie & Maddie may be liberal but not very affordable anymore. Not CA expensive but not cheap either. If you want really cheap the Rio Grande Valley is that. Laredo, MacAllen, Brownsville etc. The crime rates are lower than you would expect near the border. San Antonio is fairly low cost compared to Austin. Birmingham Alabama is cheap and on the rebound. Nowhere in CA is cheap except maybe Modoc County. Buffalo NY area seems to be a bargain, plus it seems to be coming back and it is near Toronto & Niagara Falls as a bonus.