i second joe - austin or the hill country. houston is just too damn big for my tastes. austin would be great for the culinary side..hill country is just flat out beautiful.

I was hoping no one was going to mention San Antonio.

I was on a DoD project in Hondo / D'Hanis for several years. Bought a retirement piece of property adjacent to Garner State Park in Uvalde County. It's ugly, these stupid wildflowers keep coming up every spring, the land is covered with old trees and it is hilly enough that it will take a while to decide exactly where to build the house.

It's ugly, out in the middle of nowhere; do not even consider the San Antonio area. Total waste of effort.

Go somewhere else. Please.

Excuse me? Guess the third post on this thread does not count? :)

Like these:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1176306779.jpg

ahhhh, Texas......God's country.

I've lived in El Paso, San Antonio (4 times), College Station, and Dallas/Ft Worth mid cities. Lots of family in Houston. Been to every region and every major city in the state. Floated the Guadalupe/Boating at Canyon Lake/Live Music in Austin. The hill country is the ticket.

I'll be back someday.....

Lived in Dallas (Garland and Wylie) until I was 11 and get back there every few yrs. I have pondered moving to Austin a few times. But I think AZ or NV are calling me. One thing's for sure - I can't wait to get out of this place.

Houston has one of the best restaurant industries in the nation. Many top notch chefs and lots of opportunities. Austin nitelife is better but Houston is a family kind of town. Depends on what you are after, but you should be able to find it in Texas. You just might have to drive to get there.

Rick

Don't overlook New Mexico. WIthout "family ties" here in Tucson (which is, in my opinion a great place to live), New Mexico would have been our first choice.

I kind of want to be in AZ to be near CA but with none of their crazy politics or gun laws. AZ's are more like VA's.

Laughlin, BUllhead City (both hot) and Prescott (in the mountains, moderate climate), Anywhere else there isn't much to do.

I wouldn't move to Houston. It's the Armpit of America. Hot, humid, and it stinks. If you do move there, move as far north as you can get.

Austin is nice, San Antonio is better. Either of those are great. In Austin, I believe the cost of living is higher than anywhere else in Texas.

DFW is the place to be. We are growing fast, we have lots of jobs, and the cost of living is LOW. I heard an advertisement on the radio where you can buy a brand new 3500 Sqft home for 175K.

Either way, once you get here, you will love it. The cost of living in Texas is awesome. Everyone I know who has moved here loves it for that reason along. You live like a king compared to anywhere else in the US.

I know you get a lot of house for your money in TX, but the real estate taxes are out of this world. It looks like the mortgage payments would be the same between a $700k house in VA and a $300k house in TX because of the taxes. And in VA we pay 3% sales tax on cars. I can't imagine how painful 8% on a car in TX would be. Is it really that much cheaper?

WTF? What are the property taxes in TX?

College Station. Centrally located. Best value for the buck, real estate. Look at recent national surveys. 1 1/4 hrs. too houston.
2 hrs to austin. Under 3 hrs. to Dallas. The best place I have lived. Texas World Speedway is 5 miles from my house. Could participate in at least 1 to 2 DE's a month if I could afford it. White Collar, Highly educated population, (TAMU no Aggie jokes please) with a small town twist.

Rick & David:

It depends on where you live.

My house assesment is $315,000 (Value = $377,000)

Taxes last year were: $7,600 (about 2.4%)

County Property Taxes $1,900 (0.60%)
School Taxes: $3,700 (1.17%)
MUD (Water) $2,000 (0.63%)
MUD is kind of like Mello-Roos in California - You are paying for the installation of the water, sewer and surface run-off systems

If you live in an older area, you will not have MUD taxes. But if you live in an incorporated city, you will pay city taxes.

No State Income Taxes - Personal or Business
Sales tax: 8.25% and it is Federally deductable!

For comparison:

When I lived in Albany NY, my Apt Bldg was valued 95K. I paid $2400 (2.5%) in property taxes, plus we paid 6-7% in State income tax.

My place in California, valued at 360K, I paid $3500 (1%) in local property taxes, plus 6-7% State income tax.

Rick: How much is you personal property tax on your cars? State and Local income tax? Property tax rate?

My condo is assessed at around $339k, closer to $400k for market value and my tax bill is $3100 per year.

Car tax is a weird formula and their assessment of my stuff is way low, but I ain't complaining. The 993 is assessed at $25k and my bill was $500ish, which is also federally deductible.

I don't know what the state income tax is, but it's low. I always get money back, but I can't figure out to increase my exemptions for state witholdings.

Sales tax is, I think, 3% for the state, but most counties tack on another 1.5-2%, for an effective 5% rate. But again, we only pay the 3% on car purchases, which is nice.

Oh, I should also have said my House is 3400 sq feet (I have the second smallest on the street and that one is one story). 9000 sq ft lot.

We're in a gated community about 20 miles outside of downtown Houston, towards the Northwest. I might not live here if I had to commute to downtown, but I do also know how to navigate the surface streets to get downtown during rush hour in under 50 minutes. The "fine" resturants are "inside the loop" (about 15 miles away). On Fridays, it might take 20 minutes to get to our favorite place, mostly because we are going against traffic.

It gets very hot and very humid here in the Summer. But then it feels like summer! Winter is short and mild. And Hurricanes are about every 10 years. 4th largest city in the US. 2nd largest state (Population and Land area!). I like the people we meet here.

This is the reason we should reduce the Federal gov't. If Oregon or Washington state want's to provide health care for everyone, that is the choice of the people. And if Texas would prefer a different approach, that is also the people's choice.

For comparo - my home has a market value of $950K (and dropping). The taxable value = purchase price of $490K. SoCal is just under 1.1% state property tax and we also pay mello roos (already explained above) that for the next 15 yrs adds another 0.6%. So my annual proptery tax bill is $8300. State income tax = yes. Sales tax 7% = yes.

The trouble here is a "950K" house in San Marcos does not equal a "950K" house in Houston. When we left California and started looking here, I was planning to spend around $600K. After a few too many 6500 sq ft houses, we cut the money back to $250-350K.

Tax on cars is not 8.25%. IIRC it's in the 6.25% (none of the local fees need to be included vs regular sales tax). Annual registration for the porsche was $45.00. Gas/Electric/Water/Waste averages $300/month for my 3500sqft house. Appreciation/Depreciation of home values varies widely by area.

Property taxes can run 2-3% depending on your area--mine is 2.7%.

Austin is fantastic, you won't be disappointed. Hot as hell in the summer and just humid enough to make hot people pissed off. Usually very mild winters. It's definitely not like an arid climate.

And what's wrong with breakfast burritos? Surely they have those in CA????

JH