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.