I currently live in Dallas and lived in Minneapolis for over 10+ years in the 70's/80's. Minneapolis is a very pretty city with many outdoor activities. Summers are fantastic there. The main reason I would never live there full time again in the future is because of the horribly cold weather in the winter and a winter that seems like it will never end as spring approaches. I prefer Dallas because of the warmer weather. Yeah, the summers can be brutal sometimes, but they're not unbearable. Both Dallas and Minneapolis are pretty affordable but in my experience, Dallas seems to be a little cheaper to live in. Dallas probably has higher property taxes, but Texas has no state income taxes, so that is a huge advantage over Minneapolis. Dallas home prices are very stable...I don't think they've dropped more than 5% in the last year...of course, they didn't rise in the previous 10 years like the rest of the country either. My Dallas home appraisal actually went up this year. If you can handle the cold weather though, Minneapolis is a great place to live.