NWR: Wanting to move out of California, thinking Texas or Colorado! Anyone from there??

I moved to Dallas from Michigan when I was 24 and spent over four years before coming back home due to family obligations, but I LOVED living there! And because Dallas is such a large metropolitan area, it is a huge melting pot of people from different areas of the country. The majority of the people I met while I lived there weren't even from Texas so its unlike the smaller towns, especially West Texas, where those that were born and raised there make you feel as though you did them a great disservice by moving to THEIR state and are not welcome (and even as bad as that sounds, they really weren't ever that mean or bad about). Other than the temperature in the month of August, I have no complaints and would probably move back in a heart beat if I could convince FH!

I want to leave Houston, its crazy crowded, traffic is awful, its hot as hell during the summer, BUT its REALLY affordable, which is why I'm still here lol.

I want to move to the outskirts of Houston (Conroe). More land, less HOA crap lol. Kathryn, let us know what are you desires for where you live. I know I have things I really dislike about Houston (traffic, the heat and humidity), but there's also plenty I like (cheaper housing, nice people, the lake culture, hiking in the fall and winter). It really depends on what your lifestyle is. Give us details!! Haha

From Texas and used to visit Colorado often... Actually, I just got back from Denver last week! I currently live in NYC. FH and I moved here last August from Texas and, I have to say, we miss the PRICES in Texas!!!! We are seriously thinking about moving back to either Texas or to Colorado. You can get a lot more life for you buck at either. Texas is definitely cheaper, though. You can get a BEAUTIFUL house... I mean, $200,000 house with a huge backyard and pool, with 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths in Texas but in Colorado, that won't buy you too much.

Specifically, I'm from Dallas. I haven't spent much time in Houston but I have friends who live there. They seem to enjoy it. Dallas and Fort Worth are really up-and-coming areas. The cities are working hard to make it more appealing to tourists and outsiders. For example, in Downtown Dallas, they have built this huge park over a highway! It has food trucks and all sorts of stuff. It's really, really cool! I'd say that Dallas is for the professional person, however, if you live outside of Dallas in the surrounding cities, like McKinney, Allen, Rowlett, Rockwall, Heath, Addison, Richardson, etc. You get more of the neighborhood feel. There's really no wrong place to live. I would recommend staying away from Rowlett and Garland. They are very nice areas but SUPER BORING. Actually, I think Rowlett was voted the most boring city in Texas or something. Ha!

I think Austin is super cool and "weird" (keep Austin weird, right?) but it seems to me it's like a wanna-be NYC. It's great for the young gun and the college kid but after that I'm not sure what else it offers. I've only visited when I was in college, so I don't know much beyond that experience!

If you want to connect and know more about Texas, specifically the Dallas area, let me know! I'd be more than happy to help!

If you like the hipster scene, then Austin would be a good place. We personally hate it so we stay away. They're too cool for school. We're from Corpus Christi, which is really not that great at all, but if we were to ever move, we want to move to Sugar Land right outside of Houston.

Yeah...the Oregon coast is blah! But Portland is full of great jobs and amazing houses for I think a good price but I am jaded being from silicon valley. Haha

But if I had to pick between Colorado and Texas...I would pick Texas...specifically Austin. Verysimilar to Portland in culture.

You guys need to take me with you...

@Jessica: I totally agree with Austin being like Portland. Haha. Seems like they're kind of trying to be like each other... both adopting the whole "Keep (city) weird" thing. Haha. I love Austin and it's probably because it reminds me of back home (in Portland).

We're getting married just outside of Austin! Haha.

Texas! I grew up in a tiny town of 5000 and moved to the suburbs outside Dallas in high school. Texas is amazing and there is so much space. You can go from a big city to a small town in an hour and the atmosphere completely changes to the Texas shown in movies.

Get used to everything being spread out. Texas is huge. I would never make a day trip to Austin or Houston. If I'm going, I'm staying over night. People not from from Texas seem to thing I can just hop up to Austin for a night out. Nope. That's a five hour drive people.

The heat is the only thing that gets people. It just feels really hot even when it's only 95, which is a mild summer for Texas if it stays in the 90's. But the best part is you only get maybe two months of it actually being cold before it jumps back to the 70's.

I would definitely go visit both states and see if you could picture yourself living there. DH always thought he wanted to live in Portland until we went to visit, now not so much.

Also, make sure you are comparing apples to apples when looking at cost of living and taxes. The property tax rate in Texas is much higher than in California, they have to make up for the lack of "income" tax somewhere.

Houston has no city planning and it is glaringly obvious. It was not built to sustain the number of people that have moved to the area. Not only are there horrendous traffic problems but the PLUMBING is not meant to sustain that many people.

I've lived in Texas (Dallas) my whole life and have visited all over the country including CA and CO. It can get reeeeally hot in the summer, not going to lie, but the winters are so mild. I like it because it's almost literally half way from everything. It's really easy to travel all over the place. I feel like it's a good central point for the whole country.

That being said, I would really seriously consider moving to CO. I've been there so many times. I have heard that the winters are really seriously difficult sometimes, but I'm not sure if that totally discounts it because of how absolutely beautiful it is.

I do know that Texas has some extremely reasonably priced real estate and tax usually isn't terrible. Gas right now is about 3.49 where I am. Plus, for $500,000 you could get some serious square footage. Hope that helps!

@Private User: I disagree with poor city planning on Houston's part. It's not perfect, but they've designed the freeways a lot better than Seattle did. Houston's freeway system has a spoked wheel design. It has two major loops and freeways intersecting out like wheel spokes. They've been planning and have started to build a third loop and are expanding highway 290 which is one of the intersecting spokes (goes from Houston all the way to Austin). It's a pretty good design, I think, for keeping the expansion of the city in mind.

It is a huge city and is constantly growing. There's always construction going on somewhere.

Kathryn, we are also in Southern California and are thinking of moving for the same reasons. I agree with what some of the other posters said about jobs though. I am a nurse, so finding a job won't be too much of a challenge, but FH has sent out resumes here and there and is getting a lot of push back over the fact that he lives in San Diego. Their logic seems to be why hire someone from San Diego when they could hire local candidates. My advice would be to make sure you have something lined up- or else have the money saved to be able to afford job searching for a bit when you get there. I do have a friend who moved about a year ago from San Diego to Houston and she loves it. Good luck and keep us posted!

Gah..... Texas. Move there and take me with you!

Gosh ladies! I can't even thank you enough! You seriously have given us so much to think about! FH and I are both from California. I'm from San Diego and he is from Santa Barbara. Our parents are middle class, well at least they were back in the 80's when things were affordable. His parents home which is seriously a hop, skip, and a jump to the beach just was estimated at $800,000! And they have something very similar to us, a 4 bedroom 2 bath house that was built in the 60's sometime. My parents home is inland from San Diego a bit and their house is worth $400,000 and they have the mountain house which is worth about $300,000. They all agree that if they were in our shoes they would leave too. Its just too darn expensive! I talked to FH and he agreed that sometime after we get married we will have to take a week in Colorado and a week in Texas (or longer) and see what we like. We might be inching more toward Texas since it has similar "seasons" as California. Just summer and mild winter.

I told him if we move to either state I get a goat and chickens! I always wanted them!

When it comes to jobs, I have a bachelors degree in Aviation Management (wanted to be a pilot once upon a time) and he is getting his degree in August for Information systems and cyber security (basically a very smart computer degree). I hate my current job as an executive assistant and the only reason why I am still here is that it pays well and if I left for another job, we would be in trouble with the pay cut. Thankfully we don't have kids, jut our 2 fur babies, and we can pretty much go where ever! It would just be nice to make $34,000 before taxes a year and actually be able to live on it. There were times we couldn't afford groceries at the end of the month! Everything here is just so extremely expensive! Gas is $4.40 a gallon for regular which is practically the same in Hawaii! It would be nice to not see such a huge portion of everything we make go to taxes and then the politicians complain about not having enough money. Not trying to get political! All politicians suck!! haha

Thank you ladies again! It is kind of exciting to see where FH and I may end up in a few years! I just want to live somewhere where my kids can run around a neighborhood without gangs or any other immediate dangers close by. I really want to give them my childhood, I really loved growing up the way I did. I may not of had it all, but I had good friends, parents that fed me (haha) and a safe location!

I love my home state of Michigan. I live 3 miles from Lake Michigan...fresh water! Michigan sees all 4 seasons in their glory. I live near the vacation resort town of Saugatuck/Douglas...and would highly recommend checking out my area. Some of the best public schools in the state. I know you would be able to get waterfront property for the same price range of what you are renting.

Houston girl here! I was born and raised in Houston so of course I'm biased, but I love my city! The culture here is great and there is so much to do. It is one of the most populous cities, but the cost of living is nowhere near that of California from what I understand.

@Jenna_ Seattle isn't THAT bad for traffic... now that they've fixed the roads to accomodate the crapton of people that moved in for the tech companies. There's just a lot of construction, and it's now getting expensive. Personally I think Portland is worse during rush hour lol. But I do love Portland a LOT and it's way cheaper than Seattle. @Kathryn would you ever consider Portland? There's a lot of jobs in the area, especially for your FH in Info Systems, and it's an awesome city overall.

If not, if you're only choosing CO or TX, I would say Colorado. My dad lived in Colorado Springs for a while and it's gorgeous, there's a ton to do if you like outdoorsy stuff, there's a lot of beer, and skiing. I try to get out there for a long ski weekend once a year if I can. I have extended family in Katy and I can't handle the humidity and bugs. But that's just me personally.

I know a lot about California and Colorado--as we officiate in both states. I've only been through Texas--never lived or stayed there. (My sense is my politics are way too liberal for me to ever be happy in Texas.)

But back to CA verses CO. Colorado will be less expensive than CA and more so than Texas. The western part of the state will be less expensive to live than the metro Denver/Boulder area. CO is gorgeous, but if you're an ocean-loving gal, you're going to be homesick.

Having lived in many places, I can tell you the only way you're going to be able to know for sure is to visit. You can get everyone's opinion (always a good place to start) but you're never going to know for certain until you see for yourself.

Good luck! Contemplating a move to a new state can be both scary and exciting!

@L+A: I honestly haven't driven in Seattle in a while. I have family up there, but I never got up there near as much as I would have liked. I remember it being terrible but if they've done some fixing... that's awesome. I agree, Portland is pretty bad too. Haha. Seattle is dang expensive... I've always loved Seattle, but I never could afford to live there. Haha.

... In all honesty, I have always been broke and barely making rent and bills until I moved to Houston. Now I make pretty good money but it's FH's job that really pays the bills. He has an awesome job in the oilfield. We are blessed. It'll still never feel normal for me to not have to worry about money, but we are comfortable now. Seattle would be doable now, but our lives are here now.