Roughly 150,000 people call Gainesville home, a college town in north-central Florida built around the University of Florida and its football Saturdays at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. It is greener and more laid back than the coastal cities, with oak canopies and a walkable downtown and Depot Park. Paynes Prairie Preserve has wild horses and bison, and Devil's Millhopper is a real sinkhole you can walk down into. Springs like Ginnie and Ichetucknee, about 30 minutes out, are the local summer escape, and the Florida Museum of Natural History is a good rainy-day stop.
Living here is affordable by Florida standards, with a stable to soft market and a large renting population. Students bring an international mix of languages and a busy music scene, including the Fest festival. The tradeoffs are heat and humidity, thunderstorms, and alligators in lakes and springs. Violent crime is above the national average, and theft in student areas is common, so lock up cars and bikes.
