The wife wants to move to Texas - We're Currently in Ohio

[Ohio Rusty]

My wife's Brother and sister in law live near Ft. Worth. I'm soon to retire and the wife will in a year or two. She is starting to look at homes in Texas as she wants to be close to her brother. Preferably East Texas, but she also likes the Texas hill country. Second ... I'm poor !! I've never made alot of money in my life. I've always had the bills paid and a roof over my head. That was good for me. Looking on Zillow, many houses are out of my price range. Does anyone have a relative or friend that is a realtor that we can contact and have them keep their eyes and ears open for us ?? Send me a PM with some contact info. Networking like this is a great way to maybe find what we can afford there. Moving probably won't happen for 3 or more months. I still have to get rid of alot of 'stuff' and we have been doing that for a month already. I really only want to leave here with some gun and fishing stuff, some hobby items and my underwear. I don't want to take a house full of garbage .... I can replace it after we get to where we want to go. I don't want to spend another winter here if I can help it. I'm starting to not like the cold now.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[Kosh75287]

You'll be trading cold weather for hot, and lots of it. I don't know what crime is like where you are, but it's GENERALLY not bad in Ft. Worth, and rates are lower in its periphery. Look up a place named Benbrook and areas near it. If I was contemplating a move nearer to Fort Worth, it's where I'd look first.

[Txcowboy52]

106 here yesterday, definitely not cold. Just a heads up land and housing prices have went thru the roof here . I’m an hour north of Fort Worth. I bought 10 acres and a house in 1985, for $ 70,000.00
130 acres across the road from me has been broken up in 10 acre blocks, asking price is $28,000.00 an acre. Good luck and I hope you find something that works.

[ShooterAZ]

A couple of years ago my wife and I went to Floresville Texas to visit her brother in the VA home there. I was shocked at how low the housing costs were in comparison to Flagstaff, AZ. I could sell my 3 bedroom house here and dang near buy a mansion over there. If I were moving to Texas I'd at least have a look there. It's about an hour southwest of San Antonio. Good luck in your search!

[dg31872]

105 currently here in central Texas.
Next Tuesday, a cool front moves through, temps drop to 99!!
I better get my jacket out.

[deltaenterprizes]

East Texas is nice, I have been in Longview for 16 years.
Housing prices are going up but crime is nothing like New Orleans where I was before!
Plenty of wide open spaces here!

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Property taxes in Texas are very high. I love the state of Texas and the people who live there but it is not for everyone.

[HWooldridge]

I’m 5th generation and have lived in Central and East Texas my entire life. It used to be a cheap place to live until money from the East and West coasts started driving up prices. Last year, a friend of ours listed her house in Austin for $130K (which was at the top of the appraisals), and it sold for $200K. Somebody from California wanted it and was flush with cash. Only problem is that she needed a new place to live, and couldn’t find much for what she cleared on the deal. Wound up renting and putting her personal property in storage.

We paid $90K for our current place 28 years ago, which is a small rock house on 12 acres, and some of the neighboring property has sold recently for about $170K per acre.

[Half Dog]

I am in between Dallas and Ft Worth. Come visit and we can have coffee then go shoot. Property prices are high and so are the property taxes. The outside temperature is just right but you’ll need sunscreen. I’ll send you a PM of a realtor.

[Electrod47]

Lived in Midlothian TX for 10 years. Son and Grandkids still there. I loved it. But, when there I was working with a great salary. When staring at the reality of retirement without the salary, just spotty modest pension, Social and and beatup 401. Had to look all the way back to where my poor old daddy came from. I have a 3 bedroom 2 bath ranch house with a little over a hundred acres all way out in the country. The house has a small pond and 100 yard shooting range in the backyard. Taxes are nill here. Gassed up yesterday at Loves's 3.86 gal. We have a new SUV and my 23 years old P/U. Know all the cop's by first name in the little town near by. Great neighbors. To be honest. If I was still in Midlothian TX I would have run out of money long ago and would be in some dinky apartment clipping coupons. Did I mention I do Love Texas and miss it but have found safety, affordability and a degree of happiness here in Mississippi.

[.429&H110]

People acclimate if they want to.
Today in the Sonoran desert it will be 100+ and I like it.
At 7AM everybody walks their dogs under a clear blue sky, temp in the 70's.
We get a frost every winter, brr, plant the garden in February.
In Fairbanks eight months below freezing is normal, -40 not unusual.
Neither place has humidity, both are deserts.
Many people live in both places, happily acclimated riding motorcycles or snow machines.
My native yankeeland never gets hot or cold, and sleet is for those who enjoy it.
90F in NH is life threatening, yankees aren't acclimated to 90.

Texas had better inflate their house prices, the Calis are coming!

[ShooterAZ]

For those of you that are posting Politics in Our Town, please stop doing it! Politics are only allowed in the PIT.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Suggestion--send a PM to Texas by God who lives near Paradise, TX and see what he has to say. He did tell me the other day that it's pretty hot right now, but there's always air conditioning!

DG

[HWooldridge]

We had no air conditioning when I was growing up in San Antonio but I lived through it just fine. We had fans, and drank lots of water and tea; slept with the windows open and screens to keep the bugs out. Sometimes shower twice a day when it was real bad. As said above, you get used to it.

I used to work with a guy from Boston and he never was able to adjust - thought he had moved to Hell’s attic. Went back to the northeast after 3 years - I think he’s in New York state now.

[deltaenterprizes]

Property taxes in Texas are very high. I love the state of Texas and the people who live there but it is not for everyone.

There is no state income tax or any tax on food and medicine!

[redriverhunter]

I have lived in Texas for 16 plus years. I have had a discussion with a friend about the property taxes yes they are high, but we have no income taxes. My thoughts are I can live on the cheap and not pay too much in taxes, live in a nice expensive house pay nice expensive taxes. I my county I pay two taxes one to the school district an the other to county. car registration is not too bad. Be thoughtful about the taxes at a certain age your taxes do not go up any more, thus if you purchase from someone who is 82 years old their taxes may have been froze for 10 plus years. this may not be the same in all counties.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

We had no air conditioning when I was growing up in San Antonio but I lived through it just fine. We had fans, and drank lots of water and tea; slept with the windows open and screens to keep the bugs out. Sometimes shower twice a day when it was real bad. As said above, you get used to it.

I used to work with a guy from Boston and he never was able to adjust - thought he had moved to Hell’s attic. Went back to the northeast after 3 years - I think he’s in New York state now.

I had somewhat the same experience growing up in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calif. There would always be a month of 100+ weather, and where I live now there's always 2 or 3 weeks in the 90s and at least one week of 100+ in the middle of August. I have a portable a/c for the Mrs. in the living room, one with the big hose that blows hot air out the window. It manages to keep her surroundings at about 72 degrees. I was stationed at Ft. Hood, TX, for Advanced Infantry Training in May-early June, 1962, and every night about 1 a.m. we'd get a thunder storm with golf ball sized hail stones hitting the barrack's roof. Physical training was early, because there was a post regulation that prohibited double timing troops after 9 a.m. as it got too hot by that time.

DG

[Winger Ed.]

Be thoughtful about the taxes at a certain age your taxes do not go up any more, .

The counties have figured that one out.

Mine were supposedly frozen a couple years ago when I turned 65.
But-- it was only certain ones...... and that is the tax rate, not the amount you actually pay.
Of our taxes, most goes to the school district, a little to the city, and a little to a couple of other places.

Your tax bill can only go up 10% per year between appraisals. OK However:
What they've done here was to just about double and sometimes triple your appraised value.
Sure, the rate is frozen, but your total tax bill still goes up 10% per year.

That 'when I turn 65, my taxes will be frozen' is really a myth.

[Texas by God]

Come on down, we need more conservatives.
Yes, the property taxes are high. The land prices are way up there but no state income tax and lots of freedom left( so far).
In most of Texas we have four seasons.
1. Almost summer
2.SUMMER
3. Summer's almost over
4. Winter( usually two weeks)
Polish up your Spanish- it'll come in handy!
Even though my ancestors settled here in 1854, I'm first generation Texan because Dad was born an Okie!
109° on my back porch today- you can fry BACON on the truck hood!

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[armoredman]

In April I went to East Texas for the first time in my life, had more fun than I've had in decades living with some high school buddies I hadn't seen in 30 years in Henderson. We went to many small towns like Kilgore, and had an absolute blast. They are openly trying to get me to retire out there, too. I might...Some of the nicest people I have ever met were there in small town Texas. I would be happy to go back any time, BUT...I know the humidity will kill this old desert rat until I adjust.

One of my buddies.



My wife updating her phone after we got there - this is not a country road - this is part of the backyard...a small part...



East Texas Oil Museum in Kilgore - I HIGHLY recommend it.









Neighbors' "garden" - I like the way they garden...



Yeah, I liked East Texas.