"From everything I have heard I at least want to visit Bonaire. Funny thing though--I met two people from Bonaire on Cozumel last month. They were taking diving vacations so I guess Bonaire doesn't have everything."
True, that. Worth keeping in mind, because any dive destination isn't going to have all you want to do, most likely. When I was a kid, I thought it'd be great living near a 6 Flags or other large amusement park. A cousin who did indicated to me it wasn't all that. Then, granted as an adult, I lived in Louisville 4 years, which had Kentucky Kingdom. I went once.
Bonaire is sweet for cheap shore diving on your own terms, really good viz., warm water, mostly minimal current, nice reef & it's often been considered 'fishy' (although I thought Key Largo was more so). But if you dig into threads on it, you'll see it's not the place for big stuff. Tarpon, tiger grouper, green morays and green & hawksbill sea turtles (most I've seen were small; occasionally a big'un), a few of the barracuda, a few cubera snapper...that's your big stuff. 8 Trips, well over 150 dives there, haven't seen a shark there yet.
So you hit the Florida Keys, and how, hey, black grouper, Nassau grouper, more big barracuda, nurse and reef sharks, on the deep wrecks Goliath grouper...but, based on my trip, lower viz., and it's all mostly all boat diving (granted, cheapest I've done when bought as a big package).
My point is, depending on how much you want to dive & how cheap, it may be worthwhile to plan on living somewhere with convenient access to an airport with direct flights to good places.
If I were aiming for dive destination to live, I'd seriously consider south Florida, toward the Atlantic side. Between Jupiter & the Florida Keys, with West Palm Beach and Boynton Beach in between, and an occasional trip to Blue Heron Bridge, you'd have a variety of diving environments that could be hard to match elsewhere. Mostly boat diving, but something to think about.
Richard.