Possible Move to TX?

Hi to everyone. We currently live in Southern California, inland in zone 8/9. We are looking at moving and are considering out of state with California's stupid political situation. Topographically, I love California. Love the mountains and especially MY ocean. My sister in Plano, after the election, says "get out, and let them eat their young", lol. I really do not want humidity, so if there is a place to consider in TX. DH is from Las Cruces, NM, so we are familiar with the way west/El Paso climate, but do not want to be that close to the border these days either. It would be great to be close to my family in the Plano/Richardson area, but it is just so dang crowded (this said from someone who used to live in LA County and commute to downtown LA). Although I much preferred when I had my place on the coast, overlooking Catalina Island and it's temperate weather, I have really learned to appreciate living with space around us. We would likely be building our own, modest, home - so land is what we want. Enough of it to have horses and a garden. Weather here in the summer is more like Cruces, but a tad warmer in the winter.

Reading through some of your posts I see lots of plants that I have never heard of and all the 'talk' this last week of frost already is surprising.

Any suggestions?

Lynda in SoCal

Well, having made the move to TX myself (from IL to TX in my case--but for similar reasons) my first question would be do you like a more arid area with less grass and smaller trees (or none) or all grass or one with grass and trees like oaks and pines. To me it seems as if you can get what you want in Texas but you need to narrow the search down a bit. Maybe you can tell us exactly what you want to grow and more of us can chime in. I know that we just got a new neighbor from California. She thought the land was cheap, cheap, cheap and she told us what she paid. She didn't haggle, and I think she should have but she is so thrilled with the prices in our area. Soooo, do you want to pay $3000/acre or more? Less? Are you expecting city water? Do you mind a well? Are you expecting to have cable TV? Zoning enforced? How close to Plano/Richarson do you want? Lots of jobs nearby or self employed? There just seems to be sooooo many happy choices in Texas. But I don't think we can offer an ocean view without the humidity. I can't see my neighbors during the day (can see lights at night), and I know of a couple of nice plots of land for sale in my immediate area, but that may not be what you have in mind......

Come to Arlington you will love it, we do.

Terri is asking all the right questions. Having been to pretty much every part of the state myself (except for the southern part near the coast) it does matter for requirements. I moved to Austin with my husband from Florida. We're both ex-Yankees. You can find reasonable land purchases outside of Austin (Buda, Liberty Hill, Leander, Kyle, etc.). It definitely falls to your preferences.

lol - Nope, sorry, Austin is full. Move to Arlington...

Seriously, I'm not positive what you're saying you want (and btw there's certainly ample political stupidity here, too), but I'll throw out Lubbock. It's flat flat flat, but it sounds like yall are ok with dry and with open space and with discernible seasons. Not all that far from Plano, plenty of space for livestock, a pretty solid salt of the earth kind of culture, ...

Wichita Falls is closer to Plano, a little more rolling and a lot more air force, but has some similar characteristics if you want space.

parker is just east of plano--borders it---open space and some horses etc but close enough to anything you could possibly want or need

Welcome to TX or the possibility of coming to TX!!
Well of course we are all going to push our areas! Fort Worth has very little political controversary.....but I can't say that about Dallas. Plano has been a growing community and does have some open land. Tarrant County has more space (Arlington and Fort Worth are in TC). South of FW and Arlington is also a lot of small communities with great land and acreage. Like Terri said, you need to get in mind just what it is you are looking for. There is one thing for sure, the cost of living and any property will be a WHOLE lot cheaper in Texas.

Farmersville is a small town (but is growing like every place in Texas). It is close to Plano.

quiltygirl and all, I started picking out towns I thought would fit my criteria and Wikipedia'ed them. Oddly that was such a good tool as it gives the general population and all statistics including climate and weather info, often has links to follow regarding the town, and links regarding the county. Then I found realty websites in the county or town to see what land or housing was going for. It was kind of simple really but it worked. We were looking for low population but good conditions so I could plant roses and fruit trees. You can get almost any info regarding a town or county by starting at Wikipedia. In the end you really have to visit or send a trusted someone to visit the areas you have narrowed down to. We ended up visiting diners as you can really pick up the local gossip there and get a feel for the people.

Terri - DH had already lived here years ago so I didn't have a choice. :)

careyana, Austin is very pretty and my #1 son can hardly wait to get there to finish is schooling! I will really enjoy visiting him as I just think it is gorgeous there, but I did the congestion thing in Chicago. That was where my DH was from so I didn't have a choice when we moved there from FL really either =D! I was in the same boat as you and enjoyed it while it lasted, but it even got too congested for him. And the tax issues for small businesses in IL were getting out of hand. Not to mention the neighbors-from-hell. So DH let me pick my spot in TX as long as it was within an hour and and half or so from DFW for access to the airport and trucking. So I did my research librarian thing and found the Emory area. I had it narrowed down to that or Sulphur Springs area. Maybe Coleman area. When I need a culture fix I grab one of my sons and head to Houston for a long weekend. Or Dallas. Sometimes Shreveport. I find every six months or so is all I really need.

Terri - yes the congestion is an issue. We live about 15 miles from downtown so it's a bit quieter here but it's only a 20-30 minute drive to the airport and almost all of our shopping needs are within five minutes. It's a nice area for us at our age but when we retire I do want to move further into the country. I love little Hamilton when we used to drive through to pick up the kids in Weatherford. Culture fix! Our culture intake is fairly limited so we're okay. lol!

How far from DFW is Emory? We probably drove close to your house about a month ago. :)

quiltygirl - Welcome to Texas. We are from Southern California too! I think most of the folks coming into Texas are from California. I thought I would miss CA, but after one visit back I found I didn't. Driving alone is wonderful without all that traffic. And the people....wow, they just don't get any nicer.

We live in the SW area of Austin....in the country, on a hill. It's about 30 minutes from downtown, so if we wish to go there we can. Since we are on a hill there is usually a breeze so the humidity is only a few times a year....not so bad. Same for mosquitoes. We can get to the airport in about 35 minutes so travel is still convenient.

We lived in SoCal for 25 years and never had a pool until we moved here.....I recommend one. The freedom and cost difference from SoCal is wonderful......you will love it. Building a house is WAY easier and less expensive here. I could recommend our builder, he's great. But there are lots of small custom house builders in the area. I've even seen horses around here.

This is way off topic, but I just have to say that morganc has a very cool pool! You posted photos a couple of years ago (I think) and I STILL remember them vividly!

Thank you Terri - we love the pool too. Our very first pool....everyone said we would get tired of it, but we aren't. Every day we can, we are in that pool.

Is this the photo?

morganc - oh my, I just want to visit you and sit on the deck. :) Our pool doesn't look near that inviting!

quilty - we hope you come back soon. I'm sorry for hijacking your thread!

I would tire of a pool of the regular type, but that one I would never get tired of. I could just sit and look at it to relax.

Thank you all......that pic was taken at the peak of summer for blooms......it doesn't always look that good.....but we still love it.

I'm original from So Cal myself. There is a thread around here about the same subject you are asking. I'll look for it later. One thing you really need to consider before you move or buy in TX is the property taxes. Texas doesn't have state income tax (based on your income) the property tax is based on the annual appraised value of your home not how much you paid for it or built it for. I pay property tax on my house but I couldn't afford to buy it at at its appraised value. Just something to think about.

I think there is some type of tax break for land used for cattle also.

You will certainly appreciate the price of land and houses. I hope you realize how dang hot it gets here.
C

Granbury seems to be where so many people from California-Arizona relocate. Wish I could move there.

There is an Ag. exemption on property tax but sometimes it can be difficult to get and there are limitations to it. Don't get me wrong I love it here, when you move to a different state sometimes you don't realize what is different. I would rather know up front then be surprised. Here the laws change from town to town and county to county.

Try to buy land which is already under Ag exemption. It doens't need to be under cattle. Any Ag production including hay. Some counties are more strict than others. As soon as we bought our land we leased the grazing rights to someone who needed more room for his cattle. That was good enough here.

And, yes, morganc. That was the photo!

quiltygirl, let us know what you decide. Moving to TX was such an adventure for us. We really enjoyed sorting through all the options. I hope you have as much fun, or more! =D

Glad someone mentioned the property taxes.. those can be shocking here coming from California. They went up 10% this year for me... the maximum allowed by law.

You did not mention proximity to larger cities in making your decision on where you move. I live in west Texas.. no large cities near me but it is very hot and dry here. You are going to see snow, frost and colder weather in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth region and will be limited in the plants you can grow. The farther south you go, the warmer of course and the more you move west, the drier, less humid weather. I lived in the Los Angeles area for 5 years and loved the weather. I would love to live somewhere north or just west of San Antonio ... good weather and not too much rain. I sure could grow a good variety of plants that I can't grow here in Odessa. It still gets too cold here for some of the things I want to grow.

Good luck in your search

If you want to be in the country, but close to Plano you should look in northern Collin County or even up further out around Bonham or Sherman. Pretty country and the further you get away from the city, the less you usually pay for land. Sherman and Bonham are both within 1 to 1.5 hours of Plano.
I believe you get the agriculture tax break if you have 10+ acres and do some minimum amount of ag living on it. EDS built their headquarters in Plano, had 40 acres and ran two head of longhorns to keep the tax break..

Austin, TX is always in the top five in places to live in the United States. It is almost always ranked in the top 10 most beautiful as well. It is a very liberal town so it would be like living in Seattle or San Francisco. The town is surrounded by lakes and rivers and is half flat and half hill country. The flat portion has gumbo clay and the hill country has caliche soil.

The humidy is not as bad as a coastal town and it is far from the border. It is generally rated one of the safer cities in the United States. The housing market is inflated in Austin but that means it is 1/3 the cost of California. HA!
Actually, the prices are reasonable right now. Near downtown you will expect something around 275,000 to 500,000. North and South will drop to 130,000 - 300,000.

The traffic is pretty bad but not like California.

Good luck.



This message was edited Nov 10, 2010 5:14 PM

The weather in the Austin area reminds me of the Central Valley of CA., with a few more bugs.

lol It's full! Move to San Marcos...

San Marcos is a sleepy little town about 25 miles outside Austin. We have natural springs that come thru the middle of town and a decent historic district. The 50k population is a little less than half made up of college students. Life is sweet when they leave for summer and XMAS.

The only high paying jobs here are telecommuters. It is a little less hippy/liberal than Austin. Houses are pretty cheap and the yards are big. Like Austin, it is half clay and half caliche hill country. The community garden has a few open spots.

Austin and San Marcos are zone 8b so you can get away with certain citrus and sub tropicals. Everyone has a Peach and Loquat tree. They are handed out when you move here. Pomegranates are used in large scale wars with children. You tell those kids about the antioxidants but they only care that it looks like blood when you peg your buddy with them. Oh yeah, I almost forgot figs. They come standard.




This message was edited Nov 10, 2010 11:10 PM

careyana, it takes DH about 1.5 hrs to drive from Emory area to the airport. If he schedules a flight that leaves at 5:00AM then it is a shorter time. It just depends.

Ok, y'all. Don't mean to appear to drop a question and run, so here I am. I do not know any of you yet (althoughI have seen most of your names for awhile) and I do not mean to insult anyone if I say I do not like something and I have described your house or lifestyle. My searches have included: Google Earth, Realtor.com, Zillow.com, weather.com, citi-data.com.

We are not only looking at TX. We have looked at places around here and will look also in No. AZ. Where we are now, the housing market has dropped tremendously (unlike SF/Bay area or any coastal areas - Orange County, Santa Barbara, etc). Wd can find land here, actually for $100,000 for 2-5 acres. for $150K and more you can get that amount of and with 1000 avocado trees on it and yes you get the Ag tax breaks and use a Farm Management Co. if you do not have the experience or desire. They too raise a lot of sub tropicals in that Fallbrook area. We have driven by a property that is 2.5 acres with a 1988 remodeled manufactured home and horse tack building for $250K. I do not mind mobile/manufactured homes in earthquake zones, but not in tornado zones, also only like them with full, real drywall - no seams: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/34450-Kampen-Cir-Temecula-CA-92592/18184058_zpid/
Resale, at least here, is tougher on them though. We prefer at least 1 acre and like wells and septic and solar would be good to get. DH really prefers to have our house built with his own patented building system (concrete), I prefer faster, lol. He is a General Contractor, but not hands on. A place to have horses and goats, should we still have them. DD will be entering her first year of college this summer, likely in the la/Orange County area at a small college for a 3 year BA in Gaming Design. Of course, I would prefer to be closer to her, but who knows where she will live when she graduates.

To give you answers and to answer your questions: Yes, I like it more arid and hate humidity. When I lived on the coast we had humidity, but that was with temps in the mid 60's. Contrast that to our Santa Ana Wind season now, where we can get temps in the 80-90 range with single digit humidity. When I am in Las Cruces, NM it is too dry and all my skin cracks. Trees would be nice, but where we live they pretty much need to be planted except for some invasives (which I sometimes encourage). Satellite TV is fine, but cable for computer? Dial Up sucks. We are primarily using our Verizon cell phone for phones. Self employed, with the hopes that a company in Las Vegas will be buying his business soon and I hope we can pay cash for something reasonable. DH, particularly needs medical facilities relatively close, as at 71 he has gone through lots already.

Sheila - we have a common DG friend, Singing Wolf. She lives not far from me and she told me this weekend how great you have been with her and her dealings with her Dad and DG. Wonderful little lady. Yes, Fort Worth sounds better than Dallas and Plano. Someone I knew from my San Diego quilt store moved back to Weatherford about 5 years ago and has her own shop there now, I believe.

LOL, Realbirdlady, Jujube, I KNOW Austin is full, too full for me and my sis warned me of the SF/Seattle/LA type politics. Not my style, although my Dad wanted to retire there, had a lot picked out overlooking a golf course near a lake. Mom was fed up with moving.... San Marcos looks nice, like all the trees. Nearby, I have researched Fredrickburg as I have always liked the look of the area when seeing it on TV and in magazines. I see their weather is similar to ours, but cooler July-Oct in the days and warmer during those months at night. We get only 11-12 avg rain inches, mostly end of Nov to early April and I see they get maybe 20 inches and in the heat of summer too.

I have also found the Amarillo - Canyon area to be interesting. Sister from Plano said it is pretty there. She told me to also check out Possum Kingdom. Really? I thought she was kidding. Aren't towns with names like that in Arkansas or TN?

Jewoldsen-pretty funny about EDS raising cattle at their corporation offices.

Property taxes - yikes. CA has been fortunate to have had Prop 13, that really works if you stay put as taxes go up when a house is sold. Problem now is some of the areas where houses have gone down so dramatically and they are stuck with high taxes.

Moranc - I think I have seen pix of your yard somewhere on line before. Gorgeous. I don't waqnt to have to work hard at a yard though, but do want to grow a lot of veggies and some fruit. We have sandy soil here and lots of gohers and rabbits to challenge us.

Thank you all for your input, hope to keep up with you all.

Oh Linda, you get to see Jules in person....I am so jealous. She is just my online friend..such a sweet spirit, love her.
I lived in Amarrillo once...never again. The only thing between it and the north pole is a barbed wire fence! And the dust storms clog your cars and home a/c units too. Look at Grandbury and GlenRose area. They are about an hour southwest of me.

Keep us posted on your searches. Sounds like you are doing a good job.

It sounds like you are living in a very nice area already!

Well, I've always been intrigued with a town call Muleshoe, TX. Its just he name, though. We sell materials to a company out there and the purchasing clerk I talk to says there are pretty views of mountains in the distance and it is not quite as humid there. I haven't personally been so I'm not sure how distant those views are. I also think Odessa/Midland is pretty. Texas is sooooo diverse. Technically I live in Grit, TX. I just love all the fun names TX has to offer. We almost moved to Buffalo TX but at the time we couldn't find the right piece of land and the land we found here just fell into place. So here we are! That's usually the way it goes.

It does get humid here where I live but I'm originally for Central Illinois and the humidity here is really about he same as those hot summers in Central IL when I was growing up. We have good breezes and some nice, big pecan trees for shade. Also oaks and maples on my next pasture over. I've visited Houston fairly regularly and it certainly isn't as humid as Houston! You could almost cut that with a knife!

We found it so fun to look into various areas to see what was what. Good hunting to you!

Guiltygirl please don't discuss politics. Politics is fighting words. Gardening is fun.

Rainfall for all of Central Texas including Fredericksbug is going to be 26-32 inches per year. We have had some droughts recently but that is what you should expect. Austin is pretty liberal but there are conservative areas of town where you wouldnt know it. You might like the village of Wimberley. It has a reputation of being very quaint and nice. It is located in a valley just north of San Marcos. I know they have an Olive farm there and wineries are popping up in that area.

LOL! Just goes to show, you have to go and look to see what is what. I wonder if she is pulling my leg?!? I am pretty gullible (BLUSH).

I talk to her every other month or so and this has been going on for several years. I always ask her how is Muleshoe today and she tells me this and that about the view and the weather and she loves it. She does say it is not near as humid as East Texas. I suppose cracking skin and fisky hair does fall into the "not as humid as East Texas" catagory. But I wonder where she is getting the rest of it? I always say to her that I am going to have to get out that way sometime to see the place and she says I should come on over, I'll love it! Maybe she is halucinating from the feeder lot odor? Just wait until I get her on the phone again! She must be pulling my leg--don't you think? She must hang up the phone and just laugh and laugh at me falling for all of that.... BLUSH again!

Well, let's mentally knock Muleshoe off the list......Sorry about that. But I have actually been to Buffalo--several times and I think it is quite nice there.....Honest! Been to Odessa/Midland as well. Also though those were nice towns......

A bit north of Denton is Sanger, quaint little town, I think it's beautiful. Reasonably priced older homes and a few newer.
85 miles north of the Dallas FT Worth area, across into Oklahoma we have wooded land with clear grassland meadows that can still be bought for under $5000 pr acre, sometimes a lot less. City water in most cases but wells can be dug for under $3000 depending on the depth..propane mostly for heat.....It's pretty country with rolling hills and oak forests. Sandy soil nearest the river and a beautiful sandy loam only a few miles in...Great farm or horse land........a wonderful place to raise children or retire. .It's gonna be humid if you live just about anywhere in the Texas area...
North of Sherman is Denison, Tx...reasonably priced acreage. Nice mid sized city. Whitesboro is a small city between Gainesville and Sherman..........neat place.
When I retired I researched quality manufactured homes and toured a few factories where they are made. Solitaire Homes has an excellent , reasonable product. I bought one new 23 years ago ...when we built our house I moved the Solitaire across the acreage and have used it as a guest house for my grown children to visit for the last 7 years.. Routine maintenance like painting and replacing the carpet and disposal and my Soliture looks as good as new, we built on a nice wooden deck and I have absolutely nothing bad to say about it. Well maybe one, none of the manufactured homes has a great deal of storage. The Solitaire with solidly built 2x8 walls, composite roofing, nice cabinets, and sheetrock walls make it much more of a house than most.

Sharondippity, I have been to Sanger and I agree with your opinion that it is quait and beautiful. I've been to Gainesville as well, very nice. That area along the Red River is very pretty IMHO.

Dogs_N_Petunias, I'm still waiting for the Muleshoe purchasing clerk to call with another order.....DH is getting a huge kick out of that whole Muleshoe thing. He says I am sooooo totally gulible and I sound even worse on the phone. I have to laugh at myself, but then I've been asking "How is Muleshoe today?" for quite a few years. So this has been going on for some time. But I will get revenge! I don't know how yet, but just wait......=~'!

Thanks for the info on the manuf. homes. Our son is thinking of gettting one to put on some land we are going to let him use until he settles down. We've been a bit nervous about that as we want him to get his money's worth even if he is single and "carefree".