Moving from Canada to US- Where should I move?

[Apkesh Kumar]

Hi, my family and I are considering moving to the US.  I work in the Tech industry as an indep. Consultant so it's important that I live closer to a regional airport.  My wife is in health care so it's important the city has a respectable health sector. We are in our mid 40s, have 2 kids are getting ready for high school.  Politically, we consider our selves very liberal, love to be closer to culture and arts. If it makes any difference, we are of Indian nationality but consider our selves a good mix of East/West.  I would love to hear your thoughts on "growing" cities that we should look at?  On a side note, we also want to start investing in properties. Ideally, somewhere close by to our new home.

So far, we've narrowed down my listing to the following states and cities:

1. NC (Raleigh, Caryany others we should look at?)

2. Texas (Huston, any others we should look at?)

3. Atlanta (don't know much about ATL, except we've been told inside the perimeter is what we want to look at)

We are totally opened to suggestions.  We have a year to make the move.