So after working for my company for nearly 20 years, my boss invites my to breakfast which I though was just going to be a friendly chit chat. But he isn't that kind of guy so I knew something was up everything was going well and he lays it on me that he has reached a age and place where he wants to retire in the next year or so.

For what I do and the money benefits I make from him I'll never be able to find another position like this, rather than stay in this hell hole of California I want to take my savings and buy a house in Texas and start over and experience real freedom. Planned on doing this in 5-10 years from now not a year or less.

My question is where in Texas is a good place to move to?

I looked at a little at San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. Have plenty of savings that if I had to could buy a house cash or put 50 percent down and finance the rest over 15 years and have a good nest egg and live comfortably.

I'm looking at spending 180K up to 250K maybe a little more if the house is worth it. Needs to be 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, no pool or real yard needed. Must have a 2 car garage. Only real hassle is my Mother probably will be living with me and she doesn't want a two story property with stairs that she has to climb daily which limits my options.

Really don't want to leave my family and friends but I'm still pretty young 40 years old and can't afford a house in CA and don't want to live pay check to pay check or burn through my savings. With the cost of living being much cheaper in Texas I move I can start at minimum wage if I had to and still pay the bills and have money left over. Right now if it wasn't for the cheap rent where I live plus that my wages are much higher than my expenses I would have left long ago.

Don't worry if I move won't be bringing CA politics and all there idiotic beliefs with me.

Lots of commies have moved into the big cities…lots of ‘em.

We live an hour north of Austin and 45 min south of Waco..the city is about 75k..spread out. Housing is priced 100k over what it sold at 2years ago. My commie neighbor who moved back to Austin bought her home for 250 and sold it in one day for 363…dude 4 houses down is getting divorced and his home is listed for 350k…it’s a 1900 sq ft home.

Be prepared to any way more than they are worth. Anywhere in TX.

It’s hot AF during the summer. Be prepared for that too.
We got snakes too.

I gotta split for a few hours as Mrs. Mike wants to go shopping, but I’ll add to this as I can.

BTW- I love Texas!

Should be options in your range in the Montgomery County area N of Houston.

There's a few of us in this area.

With the market like it is, we've though about the potential of moving a bit further north & reducing our current debt.

Homes aren't on the market long, the last 2 or 3 listed in my neighborhood sold in under a week. Home values in my section of our neighborhood have gone up around 50% since we moved in 2017.

East Texas- not Houston- along the Texas/Louisiana border. Check out the Piney Woods region, a place near and dear to my heart.

What kind of job skills do you have? If you look at the largest employers for the big cities:

Dallas - defense, telecomms, healthcare, airlines (American and Southwest), education, some high tech (e.g. Texas Instruments), etc.

Houston - oil & gas (actual companies as well as services and consultants), healthcare (#1 cancer center in US. Only one of the 4 cities that is top 20), education, etc

Austin - high tech (Apple, Dell, IBM, Oracle, several semiconductor companies, etc), education, etc

San Antonio - utilities, education, health, tourism

What kind of weather do you like? As far as the big cities:

Dallas - hot, but low humidity. Of the 4, it's the coldest in winter and gets the most snow and ice.

San Antonio - hot and dry

Austin - hot and dry. Slightly more winter than San Antonio or Houston.

Houston - hot and humid. Not quite as hot as the other 3, but the humidity makes it much worse. Mildest winter of the 4.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
East Texas- not Houston- along the Texas/Louisiana border. Check out the Piney Woods region, a place near and dear to my heart.

I grew up in the Beaumont area, about 20 miles north.
Life definitely moves a bit slower there than the Houston area.

I live in New Braunfels and like the area. Unlike San Antonio we are mostly Republican up here.

quote:

Originally posted by mushoot:
I live in New Braunfels and like the area. Unlike San Antonio we are mostly Republican up here.

A few of our guys at the office have/are retiring to the NB & Horseshoe Bay area. West of Austin, hill county is where I'd like to have some retirement property.

I was raised in the hill country, just past Marble Falls on granite shoals lake. Learn to drive a boat at age 3 there and swim amongst the cottonmouths and water-moccasins. I used to play in the grass with the rattlesnakes and copperheads in the sticker bushes. Ah, childhood …

I have family around the Houston area and the humidity around there sucks. Lots of good food options though but, it reminds me of Los Angeles, lots of sprawl.

Austin I enjoy but, as we've read in many threads, there's a lot of lefties moving in and pushing it further over. The surrounding Hill Country I really like and that'd be my preferred area; if anything, I'd think my addition could help keep that county in the red and keep the blue wave within Austin itself.

Unless you are able to work at home, you may find that employment options and lifestyle options are at odds with each other. Major employers are in the big cities, which are not where the living conditions you want are located.

From a pleasant lifestyle perspective, I'd say the Hill Country or eastern edge of Texas would be best, but work opportunities are not as good there. At age 40 I assume that you will desire to still be employed in some fashion. I doubt that you'd be satisfied with a minimum-wage job, either (even though you mentioned it).

I retired in Dallas and I like my life here. I worked for 26 years for Texas Instruments after 20 years USAF. Dallas is more Liberal than I'd like, but I am happy here. Weather is a little extreme (hot in summer and cold in winter) but it is acceptable. You could not pay me to live in Houston (hot and humid, and awful traffic). Of the big cities, I'd say San Antonio was the better. Fort Worth shares the same climate as Dallas, but is less Liberal. I'm told life in its suburbs is very pleasant.

flashguy

San Antonio, Houston and Dallas are three of the biggest liberal cities in Texas, you only left out Austin. I’d look elsewhere depending on your needs and proximity to a large city. Ive grown and lived in Fort WOrth nearly my whole life, its not what it use to be but I’m a little partial. The area referred to as “Hill Country” is very pretty

Right now I work for a small family owned business that fixes watches. Mostly stuff like changing out batteries, adjusting
bracelets, and simple repairs. We had multiple stores and employees but when COVID hit it nearly put us out if business. Now it's only 1 shop and me running it daily. I've been doing it for about 20 years now and have had many jobs over the years.

Mostly customer service jobs and many years at them as a manager. I'm really good at managing people and running a tight ship so that the business runs as efficiently as possible while making as much money as it can. When I was a teenager worked in the food industry, even worked at a gun store for awhile that was fun for a bit. With my current skill set I'm good at taking things apart and putting them back together again.

At my current job the boss really made it worth my wild to stay and run it and all the other locations that I make as much as my IT Field best friend.

Luckily my current place is almost like rent control but old and that is why I haven't moved in nearly 2 decades. Won't ever find a place this cheap in the Bay Area.

I looked at mortgage in Texas would be at most about double what I'm currently paying in rent right now even less if I do it at 30 years which I don't want to to do and have it paid off when I'm nearly 70.


Was looking maybe looking at opening my own little Watch Repair shop if I moved and if it didn't work out at least I wouldn't lose my life savings. Luckily I could work any job as long as I had my emergency fund/savings, pay the mortgage, and have money left over I'd be happy. Plus my Mother would be helping out if she decided to move with me so that's 2 incomes.


As long as I can live with fellow Republicans and finally get away from all the idiotic CA gun laws and finally have a CCW, and all the other goodies like a suppressor and standard mags I can live anywhere. No more lawlessness and crazy lefties would be a dream come true.


Not a requirement but I'm used to living in the city, don't need a place like downtown Los Angeles or New York but don't want to live out in the country side where I would have to drive miles to reach the nearest grocery store or restaurant.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
East Texas- not Houston- along the Texas/Louisiana border. Check out the Piney Woods region, a place near and dear to my heart.

Vidor? Went to a fish camp near there, great area and friendly people.

We lived in the San Antonio area for 25 years, North of town for 18 years of it and loved the area.

North of Dallas now, in Collin County now.

$180-$250K now will not get you much of a house here at the inflated prices. We bought our current home in September 2020. 1.5 years later and comparables in our neighborhood are $200K more.

quote:

Originally posted by RogB:
Vidor? Went to a fish camp near there, great area and friendly people.

Vidor is Southeast Texas, on I-10 just east of Beaumont, not too far from the Gulf Coast. The Piney Woods is north of that.

Come on down, we will leave the light on for you.

I’m back, Mrs. Mike only made me walk thru half the stores in Salado. (Antiques and junk)

What those guys abouve me said covers it.

Property taxes are astronomical (maybe not compared to CA or WA) but they are balanced by no income tax. The state is gonna get its share one way or another. When we moved Mrs. Mike did a comparison between the cost of living in Eastern NC and Temple…things cost about the same but you didn’t get dinged on your cars, trucks, atv , boats, golf carts etc EVERY year. And she found we were paying about $5000 annually (for everything including home)in NC for all the taxes and the current property taxes are about 5000 for our 2200 ($250000) square foot home in the city.

Just be prepared. If we picked up and moved our home out in the county the taxes would be less. But we chose our place based on the school district

We visit the Gulf Coast and drive thru east TX to get there. Say, Hugo - Longview - Nacadoches - Bay City. Lots of great towns to focus on.

Our first trip was a week after Hugo - in fact, we left day after the last road was open to get to Bolivar Peninsula. And in that process we got to see where a hurricane would dump the worst amounts of water. Of course, the closer we got the worse it got. Beaumont was smelled before we got to the city limit sign - piles of wet sheet rock, particle board furniture etc lined the roads. Now, this isn't a common event, but it is something to consider. The "water line" on that storm started near Lufkin, and from there most communities in the hills avoided major issues, but down in the coastal flats it was a problem.

Last year was after their deep freeze and Galveston even had snow. A lot of the palmettos were frozen and they were still working the damaged ones, cutting off the dead growth. A lot were getting "topsy" cuts - the new leaves on top were all that were left. That's something that happens every 20 years or so, again, the coastal flats suffer the most. And by snow in Galveston? An inch. We had three inches two days ago here and meh, its the fourth time in SW MO. In the east TX hills it's not a major problem. It's just more seasonal than LA but not like up in the Sierras.

The closer to the I45 corridor the more urban with strip cities and malls. There is a normal attraction to corridors like that which bring traveling thieves working just off the highway, we get it here in MO too. Stay at least 30-45 miles to one side and that incidence is much less, you just get "Normal" crime. Waco is definitely affected by the proximity of Ft Hood and the suburbs surrounding it will have a lot of turnover in homes as military move in and out, neighbors will change more quickly than imagined but the quality tends to be steady. A smaller town further east in TX will be "small town" in comparison. Not to forget - the E-W corridors of I20 and I10 have some of the same issues as I45. Some towns in those corridors are oilfield suppliers and it's a lot more industrial, with buildings of much older provenance. Approaching one of them we see a lot of the same 80 year old stuff our town had from the hard rock mining days, thru what must be TX's oldest roundabout, which then transitions to a great area around a college. Makes for an interesting trip. Like, Bogota, which must be the center of TX 1940's bread vans. They line the streets.

Inside the metros, your call, BLM/Antifa worked them. Austin is reputed to be the refuge of CA liberals and a hell hole for their politics, Galveston is Houstons party town striving to clean up their act. It was Vegas before Vegas was Vegas, and trying to move toward a bit of Branson. It's an expensive Island to live on, average new home there or on Bolivar peninsula is $300,000 on 14 foot piers and mandated hurricane insurance. Lufkin or Nacadoches is more my style - far enough to blunt hurricanes, small enough to find affordable housing, near enough to the coast, the metros, and rolling enough to find a quiet corner with some summer shade.

But, I have all that where I am. I just visit TX. No plans to live there.

I'll give you some Houston region based suggestions.

North - Lake Conroe / Woodlands / Rayford Road areas - Good schools & food, close to outdoor gun ranges
South - Alvin / Pearland / West Columbia areas - close to PSC range, GreenWood Gun Club
North West - Tomball / Magnolia (outside of Harris County) Tomball = Great school district, Tomball Gun Club nearby
Farther North West - S. College Station College town, SEC Football/Baseball/BBall
West N West - Bastrop, small town feel (but it is growing)
West - Shiner, Halletsville. Schulenberg, La Grange, Columbus all old towns founded by Germans, still small, not overgrown, small rolling hills

Welcome to Texas!

HK Ag