10 reasons people are moving to Texas

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bbbamI said:
Houses in our 'hood are selling quickly. One house on our block was sold in a month. The house next door to us sold in two weeks. Our neighbor sold his house for $160k...we bought our house in 1994 for $97k.

Megacorp gave us an extra $10k for relocation (on top of all other relocation expenses). So basically we paid $87k for our house as we used the $10k for a down payment.

Hmmmm......
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BBB: I was about to ask if anything had happened to you...... Another usual suspect accounted for:)
 
Popular bumper sticker when we moved to Texas (1980's) "Welcome to Texas, now get the hell out". On our block only three households were natives. Others were from Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, India, New York City, and multiple Californians. The NYC family moved back in less than a year. They used to just stand outside and stare at their surroundings.
 
Willers said:
We're seriously considering Texas as a retirement destination for many of the reasons mentioned in the article. Living now in Madison, WI, a move to Austin would be like just like staying here, but improving the weather and getting a tax break.

And...mmmm...BBQ
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Hey...I lived in Janesville for a year! I really enjoyed it for the most part. You guys have a cool airport in Madison that's so easy to use... Back to Texas, though. By the way, I also lived in and around Austin for 15 years.
 
Spreading the state abuse wealth.

Bumper stickers in Alaska during the late seventies, nearing the end of the North Slope oil pipline construction:

Happiness is a Texan going home with an Oakie under each arm.
 
MBAustin said:
So I'm here because I married a native Texan and something just keeps pullin' them back. We've been in Austin since '99 and it's hard to believe how much it has grown - the city population is more than 2x and the metro region probably more. Property taxes are huge and the schools are still not properly funded - the latest court case on this has still not been resolved. I would not choose to move here now, but we have enough roots that we'll probably stick around.
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I moved to Austin in '81 and it was a GREAT place to be. I finally left the area in '96 when my job went away (when Bergstrom AFB went away) and that's when I moved to Bossier City, LA). Austin back then was of course growing, but was easy to drive around in, because traffic wasn't so bad. It's just too big for me now, but I've always been more of a small-mid size town guy. I move out to Bastrop for a few years when they only had a single stoplight (maybe 2 at the most) but now even that place has exploded. Wife's from Smithville, which is still pretty small. I love Austin, but wouldn't wanna live there anymore. Seems like I recall an Austin city population of around 326000 or so when I first got there....and it was by far at that time the largest city I'd ever lived in.
 
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Texas Proud said:
I visited people in Westchester county (sp?) in NY.... the house cost more than $1 million.... but it was a lot smaller than the one I live in and built a LOT worse... I was shocked that it was more like my mom's house.... old and small....

The only thing it had going for it was 'location'....

I lived in a high rise in NYC.... the place cost over $1 mill (company paid for it)... my mom's current high rise condo is better built, better maintained and a LOT cheaper... again, the only thing the other had for it was that it was in NYC....


So, unless you are talking about location..... your stmt makes no sense...
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Location IS the key in determining real estate prices. That's exactly why a (relatively) cheap $200K-300K house in TX would sell for a LOT more in many other parts of the country. If people weren't willing to pay higher prices, they wouldn't and the prices would come down. People are willing to pay more to live in some places.
 
nafddur1 said:
Location IS the key in determining real estate prices. That's exactly why a (relatively) cheap $200K-300K house in TX would sell for a LOT more in many other parts of the country. If people weren't willing to pay higher prices, they wouldn't and the prices would come down. People are willing to pay more to live in some places.
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Location certainly is a key driver of real estate prices. That probably explains price differences between neighborhoods, and some of the variations between towns in the same state. Between states? That's a pretty broad brush.
 
Hey the reason people are moving to Texas is all about the jobs, and it being friendly to big business (eg taxes and being a desirable area to attract talent). More corporations have relocated to Texas over the past 25 years than any other state and with that comes jobs. Houses here are reasonably priced because land is abundant, but you usually end up with a small plot and the low cost construction labor makes it even more affordable. Heck, we moved here in 93' from CT, and our house would most likely cost $2M or more if you tried to replicate it back in CT.

The comments about Texas having cheap or poorly built homes in comparison to one posters local sounds like a case of jealousy to me:tongue:.
 
DFW_M5 said:
Hey the reason people are moving to Texas is all about the jobs, and it being friendly to big business (eg taxes and being a desirable area to attract talent). More corporations have relocated to Texas over the past 25 years than any other state and with that comes jobs. Houses here are reasonably priced because land is abundant, but you usually end up with a small plot and the low cost construction labor makes it even more affordable..
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+1. moving to Texas has always been first and foremost about jobs.

My first stint in Texas was in Houston 1980-1982. It was a giant boom town then, with a zillion people from Michigan moving there. Good promotion for moving there because none of the other people in the Wyoming or Colorado offices would move to Texas. Met my DW there, and she wanted desperately to leave Houston, so it worked out well that my next job was in Montana.

Next lived in Texas in 1986, on Galveston Island. And visit the in-laws in San Antonio off and on for extended periods.

Texas is a very polarizing place, and I'm surprised this thread has lasted this long with its civility intact. It is a positive reflection on the contributors to this forum. That said, I do have a several offbeat observations (not interpretations) about Texas.

1) Just as Anchorage is to Alaska, Denver to Colorado, NYC to New York, Houston is to Texas. That is, Houston is the one giant metro area that the rest of the state claims is not the 'real' Texas. And in Houston, that is correct. It is a very cosmopolitan city. When I worked there in the 1981, one of the native houstonians asked me, as an outsider, why people in the rest of the country didn't like Texans. Yikes, what to answer that with! I told her it was the people in Dallas that get out and about and misbehave and give Texans a bad name. Since she was from Houston, she was quite happy with that answer.

2) I realize this is not representative of the majority of people in the state, but Texas is the only place I've lived or visited where in certain cases, and more than once, it was obvious that I was receiving preferential treatment at a business because I was a Caucasian person. Maybe other places are more subtle about it, and I'm a little dense, but Texas is where I noticed it.

3) Some Texans think more of Texas than of the USA, and if they had their druthers, would put the Texas flag at the top of the pole. The only other state I've observed that sentiment is in Alaska.

One other Texas story: after we left Galveston, our work crew went to Twin Falls, Idaho, and we brought along a couple of field assistants from Winnie, TX. They had never been out of Texas, (except for Louisiana). One day I was with one of them and we were looking at the Snake River canyon, and the guy from Winnie says "too bad that's not in Texas". All I could think of to say was "well then it wouldn't be Texas anymore".
 
These posts make for very interesting and entertaining reading. My grandson moved to Austin about 2 years ago because he was offered a job in a hospital. Our daughter and son-in-law just returned from a ten day visit with him. For a variety of reasons, our grandson loves it out there. I guess it might be considered a yuppie kind of city. Our daughter kind of hinted that if it were not for us, they would leave in a heartbeat and move to Austin. She didn't say it like that but I could understand her thoughts. Then again, she just might be missing her son.

The only problem I ever had with Texas is that it's too damn big. You have to pack a lunch just to go the next town. And like some posters said, that's why the cost of housing is lower than other places in the country. There is just too much land to make it expensive. My first visit to Texas was in 1989 for a couple months. Played a lot of golf and having just joined the retired ranks, looked around at some houses for sale. Being realtors in Michigan, we remarked that housing was a steal way back then.

I always thought Texas, at least eastern Texas, was considered humid but my daughter tells me otherwise. She found it drier than Florida, but then it doesn't take much to be drier than Florida.
 
timo2 said:
3) Some Texans think more of Texas than of the USA, and if they had their druthers, would put the Texas flag at the top of the pole. The only other state I've observed that sentiment is in Alaska.
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There's some history there...
 
This thread is so interesting. One thing that always amazes me is how quickly people will jump on my home state and say such negative things. I, being a well-bred Texas girl, would never make disparaging comments about all those other unfortunate states out there. My, my, they do have their problems, but I will not stoop so low as to point them out to the people who must live in them. All I can say is I am sorry....stay away from this HELL HOLE we call Texas.

Call me crazy but, I never have been able to get that sticky off my feet and never will. I have traveled all over the world and Texas will always be home.





REWahoo is my hero.
 
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I have wondered why there are so many armadillos in MO now, when 20 years ago, I never saw a one (well I still have never seen a live one, just dead ones spaced about a half mile apart on every highway). It most be because so many people have moved down there, they have no where to live and have packed up and moved north. I have been to Texas a lot, and love the Texas persona. I will never move there, but I am sure I would be just as happy down there. I know many people who live there during our winter months and love it there.
 
Purron said:
All we got round here is ticks, skeeters, and cicadas. Well, to be fair, we also have more than our fair share of dangerous pests in the form of members of Congress. So stay away from Virginia too...
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If it's all the same, I'd rather go with the pests and critters in Texas.
 
Few other observations on living in Texas.

Met two other business associates in El Paso for a meeting the next day. We stayed at the hotel by the airport. That night both had their rental cars stolen. Only certain cars were available to rent (no Fords). The hotel also left a note on your pillow not to leave any valuables in your room.

Eating lunch at a McD's in El Paso and noticed a Pest truck and workers. So happens there was a rattler in the kid's playscape.

Was driving in Austin and there was a pickup with lawn equipment and a trailer full of workers. It was stopped for a red light on a hill. When the driver popped the clutch it pulled of the rear bumper and hitch, leaving the trailer sitting in front of me. The workers ran off in six different directions.

In early 80's Austin there were blue laws - no stores open on Sunday. You could only buy a beer in a restaurant in certain counties and then you had to buy a membership first.

Huge real estate bust in Austin in mid-80's. Our new 115k home in '84 dropped to 70k in '87. Many of the relocatees simply walked away from the homes and moved back north.

One of my neighbors in Austin in '84 worked for the TX TOD and told me of plans to build an upper deck for Hwy 183. Traffic was already getting bad. 12 years later this project was just getting started.

One February we had an ice storm and a 90 degree day in the same week (I looked it up when my kids didn't believe me).

Incredible music venues in Austin - Threadgill's, Stubb's, Broken Spoke. Janis, Willie, and Stevie Ray all played there.

Liked some of the off the beaten track places - Fredricksberg, Johnson City, Bastrop, Lockhart, Gruene (green), San Marcos, etc.

On the whole I enjoyed my 14 years in Tejas. My daughters still live in Dallas and Houston.
 
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