Quick! what can you tell me about Hesse and Rhine Westphalia

Are they nice places to live?

I like the central section -- Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Paderborn... it's a great area to visit; and, I imagine, a great place to live.

Hesse is a good place to live; it is like the main specialties: whey cheese and hard cider: an acquired taste :evilgrin:. At the very least one has to accept two "truths" to avoid conflicts: a) Frankfurt is a world city and b) Frankfurt's deserved role as capital was stolen by Bonn (and later Berlin).
Middle-Southern Hesse is one huge suburbia, the northern part is pretty poor. The climate is influenced by the middle mountains and thus tends to be on the foggy side, the food is best in the wine growing region along the Rhine.

North-Rhine-Westphalia is big (huge by German standards) and pretty much covers all possible variations: the "neat" cities like Cologne and Dusseldorf, the decidedly not-so-neat cities in the Ruhr area and the rural University towns like Münster. And naturally a whole lot of "rural" areas.
The western part has the added bonus of bordering to the Netherlands.