Good evening everyone
So for the last few years, I have been miserable in the state (Minnesota or Minnefornia) I live in. State politics, weather, and my state not being very friendly to my career field, I have been thinking of moving. The wife and I have visited Texas a bunch of times (around Dallas, Austin, and Houston) and we fell in love with the state. I currently work at a good place but I have an opportunity anytime in the future to transfer.

So what are the pros and cons of living in Texas? I am asking to hear from residents or former residents as we are seriously looking at uprooting and leaving.

Thank you and its appreciated

no state income tax but high housing prices.100*+ summer temps mainly for short periods. Lots of nice cruise weather the rest of the year.A number of drag strips if you are into to that or plenty of car shows. Decent job market.

Interested in this thread/question. You folks that live in no state income tax land.....what are vehicle registration costs? personal property taxes? Etc? We know the gov't gets their share one way or another. Thoughts?

C'mon down, bring your sunblock and get ready for 10 months of air conditioning and yard work per year. Houston and Austin?

Cons: heat, humidity, traffic, housing prices, property taxes (legislature in session now trying to relieve that problem) It is projected that by 2100, D/FW will be the largest metro area in the country. Yes, bigger than NYC, Chitcago, Hotlanta and L.A. Get ready for 10 months a year of Air Conditioning and yard work.

Pros: It's a VERY dynamic area, pick a spot in the middle of the metromess and you may never need to move again. Gas prices are generally in the lowest tier of the country. I almost forgot, our precipitation almost always goes down the drain. Winters and usually quite mild. Generally very little snow and ice here. When there are slick roads, just stay home. The traffic negates ANY driving skill you may have. Lowest common denominator rule.

I've not lived there but if I was coming in cold, I'd probably consider San Antonio. Houston and Austin are non starters for me.

After being a gypsy for my first 17 years, I've been here now for 51 years continuously, 54 years total in three stints.

Registration costs here are less than $100 / yearly. There are no personal property taxes, well, except for Dallas, I think they implemented a personal property tax on vehicles in the early 1980's?. I noted the property tax in my other post. Mine are ~ $9,000 / yearly, insanely high to me, but from what I hear from other areas, pretty cheap.

Appreciate the reply. Sounds like my registration costs. 9k/year property taxes are high for me but I don't know your property. I have 2k sq ft/4 car attached garage on 1 acre in a community of 2 thousand people. I pay 3k/year

Houston, home of the world's widest freeway (Katy Freeway) at 26 lanes wide........

EVERY road in Houston is under construction, in some shape or form

Traffic bites the big one, only gets worse when it rains, and if a Hurricane comes, God help you.

Houston, where you can drive 4 hrs and still not be out of Houston proper.

Pierce Elevated which is the major North/South I-45 artery that goes past Houston right now, is slated to be rerouted a repurposed. Guaranteed chaos for decades to come....... PIERCE LINKY

Do you sense a theme here?

Oh, and Houston Raceway Park is no more.

EDIT: So as to not make it ALL negative, we do have Bu-cees ..........

My brother moved their from SoCal and vastly prefers it. He's in Arlington, which is the DFW area.
Guess it's a pretty windy area.
Mostly sounds like any other big suburban area.
I always liked what they call the hill country, myself: scenery was great, didn't seem too populated, but that was probably 30 years ago.

Windy? Not really. Forgot to mention hail, hails WAY too much here. Hill country, not too far from San Antonio, really pretty area. Gratuitous Texas video embedded below. RIP Doug Smith, composer and performer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Smith_(composer)

Wherever you decide to land, might want to make serious consideration now of what you think the weather and water conditions will be in 20-30 years.

Lot's of positives for Texas but one negative that I don't think was mentioned was a rather fragile power infrastructure.

Texas has some unique grid challenges, but remember when California ran short of power a couple decades ago, Texas utilities stepped up, fired up some power plants that were under EPA sanctions and sold energy to California at those sanctioned prices. As demand all over the country increases, we're all subject to power shortages. We still have numerous gas and coal power plants under EPA sanctions that can be operated but not economically, effectively, they're shut down. Our 2021 snowmageddon was quite unique when coupled with the covid restrictions, plants didn't have time to prepare for the freeze.

Throughout central Texas, including Austin and Waco, six to nine consecutive days of freezing temperatures broke records for the longest freezing streak in the state’s recorded history.

Wind and solar are not reliable, standard power generation must ALWAYS be an available backup.

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/great-texas-freeze-february-2021

https://www.reuters.com/article/uti...gas-plants-to-shut-idUSN1124347820110512

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa...h-power-plant-rule-idUSN1E7661OO20110707

That would not be true, but what do you expect from an Okie, lol. Texas' grid is optimized for hot weather conditions, not snowmageddon. We get snowmageddon once in a lifetime, heat every freaking year. They have been doing a lot of infrastructure upgrades, I see it all over the place as I travel around the state. Who knows if it's the upgrades we need though, lol.

Texas is a pretty damned big place.

I live in west Texas. In the past month I have had the misfortune of having driven to DFW, (Princeton), Houston (Lake Jackson) and Austin. I lived in Austin a few years back in the mid 90's. I hate big cities, too crowed, too much traffic and too expensive.

Thursday I drove up to Amarillo (Thru Lubbock) and back on Friday, very nice, no traffic to speak of. Housing isn't so crazy priced.

As for property taxes, well I paid a total of $3,226.40 last year on an appraised valuation of $199,530.

So I don't know who's paying $9k, but it isn't me. BTW, all this is public info available online.

To be fair you'd have to add your property taxes, personal property taxes and income tax up to see how you compare. My registration costs were ~$75 last year, for the BMW and the 51 Plymouth, each. I could get antique plates for the 51 and not pay registration each year, but I like to be able to just jump in it and drive wherever I want, whenever I want.

That would be me.

02/07/23 Tartcnt Prty Tax DES:CHECK PYMT CHECK #:1002 INDN:003000933320002 CO -$8,749.74

ID:0400000068 ARC

I rounded up to account for the inevitable 2023 increase in home value or tax rates.

That's not all that useful, what was the assessed value?

We (Texas) have people moving here from all directions. Traffic in Dallas is LA-style bad. Lots of California plates. All of this plus the border is open.
(Fentanyl in the schools)
They are building everywhere.

Tip: brush up on your spanglish.

had a longtime California friend move to Conroe ( Houston) area when he retired. His wife was miserable, he was an optimist on about everything. Generator was a must along with other things. The storms were frequent and lots of rain now and again. Not speaking from personal experience just passing along their experinces. BTW they are in the process of moving the vegas

I have lived in both states and currently live in MN. It really depends on what you love to do with your spare time and job I suppose. There is no perfect state to live in they all have their advantages and disadvantages. For me I love to fish and TX did not offer a whole lot in the way of fresh water lakes, I am a hard core walleye guy so naturally I went back to what I know the land of 10,000 lakes.

I got tired of the 90 plus days of 100+ degree weather and the lack of green trees LOL. To each their own...

Know someone that was just visiting south Texas from the north and couldnt stand the heat, it was over 100 degrees every day

I was born and raised in northern Ky ,I had plans to move to someplace warmer post retirement. And was looking at the south east area. But the humidity made me look elsewhere


BUT, life has a habit of making decision for you. Some factors in our life made me start thinking about it sooner, more so than later. So ,,,we moved to southern AZ the summer of 2018 BEFORE retirement ( which happens the end of this year. )

For me it came down to I was tired of cold, dark depressing winters.

I dont hunt or fish so neither were a factor for one state over another. My wife's sister has lived here since the late 90s and factored us to look here instead.
For me I wanted to be able to see new places and explore a completely different part of the country, being able play with my cars year round is a bonus

I have zero regrets.

I myself moved from Minnesota to Texas , lived there for 15 years , I liked many things about Texas. The heat in July , August can be pretty rough it does get bad weather at least in North Texas for sure it does and when it does , trust me .. you are stuck at home till it warms up

You will forever be called Yankee ( anything north of the red river counts )

Big state , lots of different places , glad I ended up in Fort Worth , this video explains it well .. I came back home , its changed a lot since I lived there already ( 10 years already )

Well this Okie was just going by what this Texan said in May...

"Public Utility Commission Chair Peter Lake on Wednesday warned that Texas’ main power grid is at risk for outages this summer if wind turbines don’t produce enough electricity when it’s needed. He yet again made the case that more on-demand power sources, such as natural-gas-fueled power plants or batteries, need to be built to make the grid more reliable."

However you Texans are good at generating lots of wind so I think you will be okay. :-)

I have two brothers that live in Texas so I want the lights to stay on.

property tax relief linky

I don't know what this means in terms of dollars and cents, but any relief is welcome relief. 2¢

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After months of trying to reach a deal, leaders of the Texas Senate and House announced proposed legislation for property tax relief on Monday.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan released a joint statement detailing the following proposed legislation:

Over $12 billion will be spent on reducing the school property tax rate for all homeowners and business properties.
Every homeowner who homesteads their home (about 5.7 million homeowners) will get a $100,000 homestead exemption.
Non-homesteaded properties, valued at $5 million and under, including residential and commercial properties, will receive a 20% circuit breaker on appraised values as a three-year pilot project.
The legislation will also include savings on the franchise tax for small businesses and create newly elected positions on local appraisal boards.

We do need that in Nebraska

After 26 years in the desert we’re heading north. Bought some dirt in western South Dakota 3 years ago. Just got to start planning our build. Wife retires in 15 mos

thats it , South Dakota is full

I was born and raised in Texas, left when I was 11 however. We have lived there a couple of times since over the years with the military. I have been back often over the years. I LOATHE DFW and Houston, Houston is probably my least favorite area in the US. We have lived in San Antonio are a couple of times and i grew up there as well. It like most city in the state has grown a ot the last couple decades. But if you can be outside the city especially to the north side its nice. DFW, forgetaboutit. Its very crowded and spread out. We have lived in Grapevine two decades ago and it was girting to bog then. We have friends in both DFW are and Houston. Ill pass on either thanks. West Texas is for Cowboys and oil folks. Places like Odessa are not fit for humans really, unless you like wind and smoke. Texas has a variety of climates for sure, from fairly dry to extremely humid. Hot everywhere in the summer. My wife and I have thought about going back to retire as it is very favorable to vets and native born verts. and the programs for diabled vets are great(we fit in here). But it has become so crowded and expensive in certain areas its a tough decison.

Can't wait to bring the camper out, and throw empty Grain Belt beer cans all over that grass...

Just south of Sturgis we’ve already factored in RV hookups….. unfortunately the reality of $$$ for the build might kill this deal.

This home was just completed on a 1.5 acre lot just around the corner from our dirt. There’s no way in “L” I’d spend that for that house in that area. . At least I know we won’t get hurt on our 3.6 acres if we do bail.

Wow!! We have talked about moving in retirement but.... we built 2000 sq ft w/2 car attached on 1 acre in a town of 2000 back in 89 for under 90k. We added another 2 car attached in the late 90s. Current value is close to 400k and we haven't had a mortgage payment in at least 15 yrs. Not going in debt to move(can't even imagine a 5k monthly payment!!)......might look at a condo in Kentucky or Tennessee for a getaway in the winter though.

Holy Smokes, $514 a Sq ft for a house in what cannot be the most desirable place in the world seems like fishing to me. But what do I know. At that price per square my Vegas place would be $2.6 million! More ridiculous that what they say its actually worth at half that. We are still a hot market here and its at just under $280 a sq ft. What am I missing here..

I too am trying to figure out the best place to move to as I have been a MN resident for all of my 57 years and am tired of living through 9 months of miserable winter weather just for a few weeks of perfect days in summer. We can have tornadoes here but at least you get some time to prepare. OK and TX have tornadoes more frequently and I fear its just a matter of time before one destroys your property. Florida and the gulf coast would be nice but then again it's just a matter of time before a hurricane hits you and wipes you out. Then I think about AZ, but I really believe they will have a water crisis someday in the next 20 years. Your property there could become worthless without access to a water supply.
Nashville is certainly a good contender with mild winters and has the preferred red state status, but housing prices have been crazy there for the last decade.

I have been here continuously for 51 years now, no one I know has ever been hit, only once was there a tornado bearing down on us and it went back up or dissipated long before it got here. The fear of tornado's here in N. Texas is overblown (okay, that was unintentional, but still funny). Come on down and laugh at the natives when we have one of our rare ice storms. Hail is a more realistic fear of living here.

DFW drivers during snow or an ice storm is pure comedy! I haven't lived in DFW since the 80's and still have vivid images from back then. I can only imagine the idiot drivers of this day coping.

the wife and I have considered moving/ downsizing but it's a hard decision. This place is set up just right with the location, shop. 1500 sq ft out building insulated and paved.
We could do with a bit less property and Sq, footage But when we look around other areas it hard to justify the time and expense of a move.
Couple that with our winters have been much milder for the last several years everything is bought and paid for, we're well established with doctors, dentists, haircutters, etc. Would the pain be worth the gain and or financial cost. the it's going to take at least a year to get settled and the shop set up. For right now i think we're staying put.

The only reason the wind flows into OK is because Oklahoma sucks, lol.

Can't help you there, but I also live where I HATE the politics, but love where I live. California has decent property taxes, especially if oyu have owned your house for a long time ($400k house, $2k/year taxes). Auto registration is too high ($149 for my 2000 Durango), gas is unreasonable, sales tax is too high. BUT, California, while having a high income tax, doesn't tax SS (not quite half of our income). In a little more than 2 hours I can be in Monterey and get some great seafood or just feel the ocean breeze. In an little more than an hour I can be at the south gate of Yosemite National Park. And, due to the relative low value of our home I couldn't sell and buy up for less money pretty much anywhere in the country.

Add up EVERYTHING, taxes and expenses. Compare weather and amenities. AND, understand that politics is fluid and where you move may resemble where you left in the future...

I've lived in several different area of this country. (East coast, West coast and Midwest) One thing I've discovered is that adapting to a new climate can be difficult for some people. I'm currently living in the Mid Atlantic / Southeast. The humidity in the summer is a real issue!! I can only imagine how much worse it would be near the coast in Texas! On the other hand, one of my Uncles lived in Michigan for decades. He moved to Tennessee and has been thrilled that he doesn't need to shovel snow any longer! So, a significant change in climate could be beneficial or it could be a problem. Climate should be considered carefully before moving!

If moving to a different area, consider the health effects of living there. In this area, seasonal allergies are a huge problem. Of course, some people call this area the "Allergy Belt" of the country. Other areas will have other issues that might affect a person's health. In dry, windy areas, dust can affect some people. Large temperature swings can affect people with arthritis. The number of sunny days affect other people. There are many other examples of how living in a new area might affect a person.

As far as politics in an area. This would be important to some people. I suspect a better option, for many people, is to stop allowing TV media companies to shape their view of politics. Of course, there is a story of how I reached this conclusion. Back several years ago, I was struggling with depression. (This was triggered by losing six family members, plus my dog, in one year.) During that time, someone suggested that I stop listening to the news. I ultimately cut TV time down to only a few hours per week and rarely watch the news any more. I feel MUCH better after doing this and recommend other try it. I'm convinced the media companies intentionally attempt to manipulate their viewers emotions to control how their viewers think and act. Obviously, different people will be affected differently by watching the news. I did NOT have even the slightest clue as to how much the news was affecting me, until I turned it OFF! After turning off the news, I went through some "withdraw type" symptoms for several weeks. Once that was over, I felt considerably better! I'm now a "recovering news junkie"!

If someone is considering a long distance move and wants to research various places,there is a very valuable website. This website has an extremely wide range of statistics about various places. Just put in the place you want information on and a place you are familiar with and statistics for each place will be put up side by side for easy comparison. The website is:

https://www.bestplaces.net/compare-cities/

Lastly, if someone is considering relocating to a different area, it is often wise to rent a place there for a year or two before committing to the purchase of a property. Renting allows a person time to search for a good deal on a new home and / or look for a home that is exactly what they desire.

Well I just wish you Texans would quit posting the Welcome to Texas signs on the highways coming in to Oklahoma to fool the Californians!

We were going to visit Yosemite….. but we couldn’t get a reservation