33m Married – Seeking city that is not San Francisco

Not in the US, but Waterloo, Canada is a pretty great spot for tech. Housing is still cheap and potentially could have good growth in the future. The summers are nice, and there are a bunch of freshwater beaches all within 1 - 3 hours drive. Ontario cottage country in the summer has been ranked as one of the best vacation spots in the world. (http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/best-trips-summe...) Schools are good, and if you want to enjoy the big city, you can drive to Toronto (45 minutes), which is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are lots of multicultural festivals throughout the year

Neither extreme of walkability is cheap. You've experienced nearly the extreme on one side (got some hills there though), and know that drives up housing. At the other extreme, you spend lots of time and money driving because it's dozens of miles to anywhere.

How about some moderation? There are plenty of places where you pretty much need to drive everywhere, but it's only 1 to 5 miles without much traffic. THAT INCLUDES YOUR COMMUTE. Observe that your current walkability situation is horrible, with a commute that is 45 minutes on a good day. You get to suffer walkability envy, seeing San Francisco every day but actually living a minimum of 45 minutes away.

Example in Florida: Indialantic, Melbourne Beach, Satellite Beach, Melbourne. It's not exactly walkable, but the driving is trivial. I go a mile to work (just 3 minutes), 3 miles to Publix (the nation's 2nd-rated supermarket), a mile to the beach or to freshwater fishing/boating, and so on. Houses are dirt cheap by your standards, sometimes even below 6 figures for what you are seeking. For the prices you are used to facing, you could literally live in a house on the beach.

I say it as nicely as I can -- OP wants diversity, affordability, investment opportunity, job opportunity, and family-friendly-but-not-devoid-of-activity; he needs to pick three of the five.

But I noticed, Chicago, New York, and Toronto are conspicuously absent. These cities, which admittedly don't command a larger-than-average share of devs, and don't enjoy year-long 70-80 F weather, hit most of the points that he's looking for, especially in their extensive suburbs/exurbs.

They have diversity, cultural institutions, jobs (including tech), and their metro areas have locations that are affordable and/or home to rising property values. Do only boomtowns appeal?

I'd tell you to check out State College Pennsylvania but we already have too many people who come here for college and never leave.

Minneapolis Minnesota