Moved here 7 years ago - apartments are on the high side, but affordable.
But even now, despite the recession, houses are crazy-expensive. (I'm not even talking about the cost to buy them - I'm talking about maintenance, taxes, insurance, etc. I pay about the same amount in property taxes here, that I paid for a beautiful 2 BR apartment in a big city on the East Coast.)
And everything else (food, gas, etc.) is 10-25% more than you'd be accustomed to paying anywhere else in the US except Hawaii - and I've lived in some expensive cities in the past.
On the other hand, I go outside to get my mail in January, in my T-shirt and jogging shorts
