Good places to live in Texas

Chris

Chris

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We hate the rain. My wife hates it, my daughter hates it (our other daughter will when she's old enough to know), and I hate it. It drives us batshit crazy that we're living in the rain and gloomy weather almost 9 months out of the year up here in Oregon. We dislike it because it's hard to take the kids outside to do anything (even play in our backyard) without them getting cold, cranky or soaked.

My wife and I have been talking for the past few months about potentially moving somewhere with a warmer climate in the past few years. Now, before you tell me that I don't know what I'm in for, I do (to an extent). I lived in Phoenix, Arizona for years so I know all about the heat. I also lived in Austin, Texas for a year when I was younger, so I know about that kind of heat at all.

We were talking about where we might want to live, and we pretty much decided on the Southwest. I mentioned that I really liked Arizona, but when we started looking for nice homes in the East Valley (where we'd want to live), I found that they've gone up considerably, which might possibly rule it out. Nevada was an option as well, but the only major city in Nevada is Las Vegas (which is a slum) and Reno (which is a shit hole), so that kind of rules out Nevada. We basically want to live somewhere where it's mostly sunny all year round with little rain / snow.

So then we started looking at Texas again, and man oh man... We found gorgeous houses that are well below what we would want to spend.

So here's what we'd ultimately be looking for in a house / location:
  • 4+ bedrooms
  • 2+ bathrooms
  • 2+ car carage
  • 2000+ square feet
  • No HOA (I HATE HOAs!!!)
  • Family friendly area
  • Hopefully 1 or more acres of land
  • Somewhere within 20-30 minutes of a major city
  • Max $250,000
  • In an area that is less prone to natural disasters (especially flooding and tornadoes / hurricanes)

Now the thing is, I don't know Texas at all outside of Austin. We've looked at places in the DFW area, but while the houses are gorgeous there, it seems like they're all cookie cutter houses in yuppy HOA neighborhoods.

We're trying to get advice from people who live in Texas as to where might be good places to look for places to live. We're not trying to move tomorrow, we're not even moving for sure. This is just something we're talking about, and if it did happen, it would be in 1-2 years.

We aren't even dead set on Texas. Texas just keeps coming up because it looks like it's a state that is within our price range, has a warm climate all year round, and would be much more pleasurable than the current shit climate we live in.

I'd love to hear from any of you guys who live in Texas (or anyone with suggestions at all as to other alternatives). I'm telling you, after spending most of my life in this cold weather and constant rain, I'm just over it...
 
Man, where to begin.... lots of options. Texas is so vast with every kind of topography and climate you could want. Dry-windy Plains, mountains of West Texas, Hill country in central Texas, thick woods of east Texas, and the beautiful Texas gulf Coast. Lots of areas around the major cities (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin).
 
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Chris said:
We hate the rain. My wife hates it, my daughter hates it (our other daughter will when she's old enough to know), and I hate it. It drives us batshit crazy that we're living in the rain and gloomy weather almost 9 months out of the year up here in Oregon. We dislike it because it's hard to take the kids outside to do anything (even play in our backyard) without them getting cold, cranky or soaked.

My wife and I have been talking for the past few months about potentially moving somewhere with a warmer climate in the past few years. Now, before you tell me that I don't know what I'm in for, I do (to an extent). I lived in Phoenix, Arizona for years so I know all about the heat. I also lived in Austin, Texas for a year when I was younger, so I know about that kind of heat at all.

We were talking about where we might want to live, and we pretty much decided on the Southwest. I mentioned that I really liked Arizona, but when we started looking for nice homes in the East Valley (where we'd want to live), I found that they've gone up considerably, which might possibly rule it out. Nevada was an option as well, but the only major city in Nevada is Las Vegas (which is a slum) and Reno (which is a shit hole), so that kind of rules out Nevada. We basically want to live somewhere where it's mostly sunny all year round with little rain / snow.

So then we started looking at Texas again, and man oh man... We found gorgeous houses that are well below what we would want to spend.

So here's what we'd ultimately be looking for in a house / location:
  • 4+ bedrooms
  • 2+ bathrooms
  • 2+ car carage
  • 2000+ square feet
  • No HOA (I HATE HOAs!!!)
  • Family friendly area
  • Hopefully 1 or more acres of land
  • Somewhere within 20-30 minutes of a major city
  • Max $250,000
  • In an area that is less prone to natural disasters (especially flooding and tornadoes / hurricanes)

Now the thing is, I don't know Texas at all outside of Austin. We've looked at places in the DFW area, but while the houses are gorgeous there, it seems like they're all cookie cutter houses in yuppy HOA neighborhoods.

We're trying to get advice from people who live in Texas as to where might be good places to look for places to live. We're not trying to move tomorrow, we're not even moving for sure. This is just something we're talking about, and if it did happen, it would be in 1-2 years.

We aren't even dead set on Texas. Texas just keeps coming up because it looks like it's a state that is within our price range, has a warm climate all year round, and would be much more pleasurable than the current shit climate we live in.

I'd love to hear from any of you guys who live in Texas (or anyone with suggestions at all as to other alternatives). I'm telling you, after spending most of my life in this cold weather and constant rain, I'm just over it...[/QUOTE
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My family's from Texas, I would love to live there. I'd avoid the SE areas of the state like Austin, Houston, etc. though as they are HUMID! I'd probably concentrate on the eastern half of the state. That's where it gets pretty and it's green there unlike the western half which is desert. Maybe somewhere east of the DFW area... close enough to DFW to go for stuff only big cities have but not so close you get all the big city problems. Longview kinda looks like a nice area just found randomly.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
My family's from Texas, I would love to live there. I'd avoid the SE areas of the state like Austin, Houston, etc. though as they are HUMID! I'd probably concentrate on the eastern half of the state. That's where it gets pretty and it's green there unlike the western half which is desert. Maybe somewhere east of the DFW area... close enough to DFW to go for stuff only big cities have but not so close you get all the big city problems. Longview kinda looks like a nice area just found randomly.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. The less humidity the better, and the greener areas like you mentioned, would of course be nicer. When I used to live in Austin I remember that being very desert like and humid as hell.

I'll check out Longview on the map!
 
Txbigun said:
Ennis or chandler
Click to expand...

Good suggestions, looking at those two (as well as Longview) as we speak. Seems like they're close enough to DFW that if we needed to go to the city, we wouldn't be too far away.

brown_mule said:
Personally, I love the beach. I wish I could talk my wife into moving to Corpus Christi!


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I'm afraid we'd be wiped out by a hurricane!
 
brown_mule said:
That's what insurance is for.


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Yes, but sometimes they rape you for insurance, which is something I pay attention to.

If you're in one of the high risk earthquake areas in Portland, Oregon, you can be paying up to $500 a month in earthquake insurance alone (not kidding), which is in addition to home owners insurance.

So while most people don't pay attention to those things, I seem to. That's one of the reason I always check out an area I'm interested in and see if it's a high risk flood, hurricane or earthquake area. I don't want to get raped by an insurance agency anymore than I have to!
 
There's always going to be something a person doesn't like about any place they live. For instance, I live in North Dallas and have always disliked traffic here. There's too much growth for me.


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brown_mule said:
There's always going to be something a person doesn't like about any place they live. For instance, I live in North Dallas and have always disliked traffic here. There's too much growth for me.


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My daughter has been in Corpus for 3 years now. Just graduated from TAMUCC in August. Talk about traffic! There's tons of it in Corpus. I was suprised- especially coming from Houston. Aside from that the beaches are pretty.
 
Yeah, we want to avoid traffic if possible. I mean I expect it when driving into the city (i.e. Dallas / Forth Worth), but I don't want to live in a city that is congested 24/7. That's not pleasurable.
 
The lower cost of living is what makes people move here from up north. I lived in the DFW area(Arlington) for 34 years. Although it's not as humid as Houston area it is hotter. I find the humidity makes it somewhat cooler. Any part of Texas is prone to severe weather of some variety. Longview is quite a ways from the big D. When I first saw your original post I immediately thought Austin/Round Rock area for you. It's a BIG state so happy hunting. Plus you can get that cool bumper sticker that says "I wasn't born here but got here as fast as I could":D
 
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Kevin E said:
The lower cost of living is what makes people move here from up north. I lived in the DFW area(Arlington) for 34 years. Although it's not as humid as Houston area it is hotter. I find the humidity makes it somewhat cooler. Any part of Texas is prone to severe weather of some variety. Longview is quite a ways from the big D. When I first saw your original post I immediately thought Austin/Round Rock area for you. It's a BIG state so happy hunting. Plus you can get that cool bumper sticker that says "I wasn't born here but got here as fast as I could":D
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Austin / Round Rock hasn't been ruled out at all, it's just been so long since I lived there, I can't remember much.

I know Texas is prone to flooding and hurricanes, I'm just hoping that if we were to move there, wherever we choose would be somewhere that is not right in the heart of the areas that typically get hit the worst, that's all!
 
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