[DCReid]

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.