I've lived in Houston, Dallas, and Austin over my 39 years and I've never had hail damage. Not to say that it won't happen, but the odds are probably about the same as having a traffic accident.

The real hail damage in the country occurs in Tornado alley. I was up in Salina Kansas last year. There were a million shops for taking the hail dents out of your car.

Yup got some hail damage during the "Tomball Tornadoes" a few years back, but it doesn't count cuz it only hit our Toyota (our Porsche was always in the garage). So that's one hail storm in 30+ years. Upside of hail storms is they usually do enough damage to your home's roof that you can get a new roof on your homeowner's policy (if the tornado doesn't take it off -- then you get a new house). Course it seems like every car dealer has at least one "Hail Damage Sale" per year.

My mother in law bought a new Accord that was hail damaged for about $10K of sticker. She asked me what would happen if she didn't fix the damage and I told her nothing except there'd be less chance of it getting stolen since the body panels are all dinged. It's a few years later and it still has little dents all over it, but she doesn't care :).

One of the few things I miss after moving out from NM:(

I do not miss all the hail storms, blowing dust, gang problems and tumbleweeds.

Ah Ha...looks like Dallas / Ft Wuth got a little hail storm last night, along with a few roofs blown off. Yea we (Texas) get our share of bad weather, but IMHO no worse than anywhere else in USA.

I also looked at Realtor.com. I looked at SA and could not believe how much house 300-400k buys there. Amazing.

Are there any issues with wild gangs of illegals raping and pillaging the countryside?

Don't you TX guys have some super dovin' as well? I don't recall exactly where but i know i've read stories of limiting out in 5 minutes all season long.

Most of the wild gangs of illegals have been tamed...retraining has created entire gangs of very efficent landscapers.

From what I've heard some of the best dove hunting occurs in the same vicinity as the gang retraining facilities. A little south of SA.

Was looking a buying some real estate in Texas and came across this thread .. are the taxes as bad as mentioned above ?

My house is appraised at $415K and I pay around $8500 in taxes. Call it $700/mth. If someone bought a house for $415K, the mortgage with a 4% rate and 20% down would be just under $1600/mth.

Not sure how Rick can do a $700K house in VA for less than a 300K house in Texas.

I know what you mean, that's pretty darned cheeeep!!!!

property taxes seem to be about 2.9% of assesed value in the woodlands. We love living in the woodlands though it has gotten a bit crazy in the last year or so with Exxon mobil moving next door. THe population has increased by 75% in the last decade I heard.

I paid 165k for my modest little 2000 Sqft house a few years ago, though it seems to be worth quite a bit more currently. Most of you guys spend more on cologne than that :p

I am a bit of a minimalist so I wanted a smaller house, sometimes it is difficult to find houses small enough in the neighborhoods you like around here.

It all depends on where you want to live and how big a house you want. There are 1900-2000 sq ft houses in Katy in new developments for $130K. If you want to live "inside the loop", 2000 sq ft townhouse in a good area is going to be $400K.

And if you want to live in a "named" area (just inside River Oaks, technically) $750K minimum and going north quick.

We live about 25 minutes from "downtown" when traffic permits. We are in one of the best new neighborhoods and my 3400 sq ft house with a 10K lot & 27,000 gallon pool is worth about $500K.

Well, my condo in VA is worth about $325k now and the property taxes are about $2400/yr. If it were directly proportional, a $700k house in the same area should have taxes of around $5k/yr. That's still far less than you're paying in TX.

By comparison, my house here in AZ is worth about $425k and the prop. taxes are $1600/yr.

So I'd say $8500/yr in TX for a house worth just about what mine here is, is insanely expensive. It works a lot better if you make a lot of money, since you don't pay state income tax on that.

TX has about the highest property (and sales tax) in the country. Depending on where you live you can expect your property taxes to be 1.8-3% of assessed value.

The lion's share of that property tax is school taxes which can be jaw-dropping. Yes we have no income tax but the state has gots to get it's money somewhere so property and sales tax it is...

And no, it isn't like in CA. Here your property is re-appraised every year and the taxes adjusted accordingly. Hint: they aren't going down.

You have to consider all types of tax and your total bill. Texas has no state tax, no personal property tax, and low energy bills. San Antonio is the best! We live in the hills and it is wonderful! Here's the view from our back porch:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406077961.jpg

BBQ? Here's our table from the Salt Lick last weekend:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1406078142.jpg

I say come on down!

I actually still have my condo still from my bachelor days. Its a crappy 1000 sqft place but its in a very nice part of the galleria: off san felipe near post oak. I paid 130 k for it a decade ago. I think its worth a bit more now, but it is nicer than my sisters half million dollar brooklyn apt.

In any like for like comparison the Houston area is dirt cheap compared to other big cities. Indianapolis is even cheaper in my experience and is a decent place to live in some of the nicer areas.

Also there are new neighborhoods everywhere in and around Houston. They have even opened a few construction projects in the fully built out woodlands, many priced at inner loop rates, due to exon and the artificial swankiness that is the woodlands.

I live in the Clear Lake area of Houston and I like it. The cost of living is great, the schools are good, the restaurants are incredible and MSR Houston is only about 25 minutes away. Kemah is a fun place to take visitors to as is NASA. It's not nearly as pretty as Austin but I can't make the living I do in Austin. I try to head up there a couple of times of year just for the scenery.

Yup. My tax property tax bill is 5 figures. Just got banged 10% value increase this year. Fought it and got 5% back. It's a racket.

But then again my tax bill back on LI was roughly the same but for 1/3rd the house so there's that.

You get more for your money.