Retiring in Tejas
 

No I'm not... but I do have family there (cousins) and I enjoyed Fort Worth when I worked there for two weeks.

But lets pretend.

The big deal breaker for me would be weather, my impression is extremes... very, very hot summers and very cold winters. It is a big place, is there anyplace that can be considered "mild"?

Also would like someplace with low crime, friendly people, and good food. Never been to Austin but it sounds cool, Visited aunt in San Antonio as a kid, it was nice but don't remember much.

This is all brought on by a report I heard on the radio that rated Tejas as #1 place to retire.

Thanks in advance.

that 'mild area'...
your living with the A/C blasting..

Rika

Nice people, good food, no state income tax but you criteria for "mild weather" is pretty tough bill to fill. Austin is often the go to place when people recommend to transplants but the heat there and the growing pains of the city could be a deal breaker.

Its hot in Texas and humid on the coast.

Mid size city that I would consider would be Corpus Christie, small artist community would be Alpine, other than that the usual Austin/San Marcos area is nice.

Austin is pretty nice and the weather is more reasonable.

On the weather the basic rule is the farther south the more humid and nasty in the summer.

I'm from back east so I find the winters quite pleasent and mild.

Summer is brutal.

For food best get used to Tex Mex. They put frikkin pico on everything, they even eat burritos for breakfast.

The BBQ is awesome, unhealthy but hey, gotta die of something.

Drivers suck big time.

Sunday's are near impossible to get anything done before noon, nothing's open.

I heard the weather in Houston is "mild" ;)

Corpus Christi

When I lived in Upstate New York, the summer temps would be in the low 90's in August and you would definitely get quite a bit of below zero weather in February. Temp swing about 100F with extremes of 120-130 over a year.

In Houston, I don't think it went below freezing last year. It never goes below 20. Normally the maximum temp is 98. So a regular yearly swing is around 70F, with Extreme swing being about 85F.

Late May through middle September is oppressive with the humidity. But really no worse than living through a Winter in upstate NY.

My pool is 81 F already. It has been above 70 for 4-5 weeks! It will be "open" until November.

Austin, the "swing" will be a little more, higher in the summer, a little lower in the winter, but the humidity is not there. Cost of living is higher. But there are lakes, and hills and it is a very nice area. Very good tech sectors. Manufacturing is in Houston.

Balmorhea

The closer you get to water, the more mild you temps will be compared to farther inland.

Houston is ok, but I'd prefer to live in Austin despite the higher cost of living.

True & True

But, at this point in my life, from a business perspective, I'd rather be in Houston. We're about to start manufacturing a product. Houston is the place to be.

Have lived in Texas several times in my life and enjoyed most of them.

Padre, Corpus were nice but humid and you do get the occasional hurricane there. Lived in Dallas area but will not do that again... but would look just a few miles West to Ft. Worth area and move there in a heartbeat. Also spent some time in El Paso and truthfully liked it there...

If I were to do it again, Ft. Worth or Houston for a large city, San Antonio or Austin for the "hill country" would prolly do it.

Just one comment... Property tax is BRUTAL in some areas of Texas... On a fixed income, that would be my #1 criteria.

You can define your tax by the size and price of your property. If you live in the country, you need to have a "farm" or "ranch". My yearly property taxes here are definitely less than my property plus income tax in California. And the property tax has been fairly stable for the past several years.

Oh absolutely... Just saying, it's a big factor and sometimes people forget about it.

Since you brought up California, and just to further the discussion of costs, I'm finding out my property tax + hurricane insurance + bug man + higher A/C bills make my cost of living higher in FL than it was in California (lower prop tax but state income tax), same sq footage... Lot of variables to include when figuring out where to retire.... ;-)

no state income tax ????

I can get a shirt laundered at the dry cleaners for $0.99 here. 10 years ago the same thing in San Diego was close to $5.

The closest equal to my situation back in San Diego would have been living in Encinitas (20 miles out from downtown and really nice suburb). To have a house and yard similar in size there, would have been about $2M (3400 sq ft house, 10K yard, 27000 gallon pool). The property taxes would have been twice what I'm paying here.

Yup, no doubt.... It really depends on many factors...

When you bought your house, its original value, is there a cap to the prop tax hike, what your income is (sometimes with a lower retirement income, paying a state income tax is not as bad as the property tax can be in states where there is no income tax), the cost of maintaining that house (FL humidity and bugs are a pain in the ass maintenance wise, for example), utilities, insurance costs, state tax, etc.... many individual and personal factors to consider !

my brother gets reamed by property taxes. brutal! i think he pays more than i do.

other than that..i like texas. i would dig living in Austin.

:confused: I get my shirts laundered for $2.00/ea light starch.

3400 sq/ft + 10K yard + pool for $2M? You must be talking a couple blocks from the beach or killer ocean views. You can stay within 2 miles of the beach and drop that to $700K for a beautiful custom home with same amenities.

You can get cheaper property taxes if it is farm property, buy a few goats or something.

You also can get a homestead exemption, where the first $50000 of value of the home is not consiedered for property taxes on your primary residence.

Prices must have come WAY down. In 2003, when I was looking in Del Mar and Encinitas, the price for what I suggested was $1.2M. I sold my 1400 sq ft townhouse in Pacific Beach for over $600K in 2004.

I lived in houston for a bit, the humidity is down right nasty, but the people are very nice. I am in dallas now, in what is known as the up town area, sort of an urban feel, but very clean, lots to do, and almost everything is in walking distance. not a big fan of the suburbs around here though. the weather is not to bad, its only really hot from about mid july till mid september, the rest of the year is usually mild, we do get cold blasts during the winter but usually warms up a day or so after.

As an aside, there are no property taxes in Germany and much of Europe. This makes a big difference when retiring here, and makes the comparative income tax statistics misleading.

Sorry for the aside. Back to topic.

Agreed with others that you need to figure out the property tax thing. States get their money one way or another. Sometimes it's good to retire somewhere that has a high income tax since you won't have any income and property taxes are lower. Since you won't need to commute you can go live in Marble Falls or somewhere in the hill country where it's beautiful, cheap, and easy to find a rural/farm tax break.

It is FREAKIN' hot, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I am from Texas and might retire there someday, but the heat is one of the things that drove me away. As much as I love the food and the people, I was miserable 9 months a year. But I'm one of those guys that wears a t-shirt when it's 48 degrees out, so YMMV.

Quit dreaming, Texas is now full :D

I have lived in: Corpus Chirsti, Kingsville, Universal City (just E. of San Antonio).

Texas has three things that I like:
1) Great people...the ones that have lived there a long time
2) Low cost of living. Not just affordable housing, but affordable utilities
3) Awesome gun laws.

I will not retire there for other reasons as it is not my PERFECT fit, but I've enjoyed each day that I've lived in the Republic of Texas.

Reads like you need an account for numbers side of things.
And a go or no go for the other stuff.

for retirement you want to pay attention to what the next 20-30 years will be like

you likely won't care about the lousy schools

you WILL care about increased heat & drought; what any state or locality can sustain re various things you need

you should care about the quality, availability & affordability of medical care - i.e. some way outback place may not be the best fit

then there is proximity to beaches (but not too close as storms will get worse), other things you want to do, and for TX proximity to the Mexican drug cartels

oh yeh - the rest of Texas will be lit on fire during your retirement period, but that is true for most of the SW

As a native Texan living in Houston - I enjoy it here as others have mentioned - cost of living is cheap and jobs are aplenty.

I won't want to retire here (in 30 years) however. It's 'effin hot most of the year and I don't really want to sit on a couch inside when I'm retired - I want to be out doing things. And most of Texas is ugly outdoors too - flat and farmland.

From Abilene to Austin is some beautiful country. Not flat at all. My wife was born in the panhandle where there is either ranch land, wheat land, cotton, or corn if it is irrigated and it is flat and very boring. 4 actual seasons but the ever present annoying wind.

Growing up in the 50's and 60's my dad was a geologist for a major and we moved every 2 years all over Texas just like military. In the having lived in Texas 50 out of 58 years I've come to several glaring things about the weather. There is Austin heat and humidity where my son lives and we visit every other month. My brother lives in The Woodlands north of Houston and it is 3 shower a day country if you're outside at all from June-Sept. stifling hot. There are still plenty of small towns all around Austin that have really nice but reasonably priced property. When my wife retires we're heading to someplace near Austin.

I like living in texas, as a business owner I can tell you its a great state to start a business in, and if your young its a great state to start a career in. but I really do not see it as a good place to retire, its a very business focused place, even elderly people are working here regardless of income, its just how the people are here.