Is anyone thinking of leaving?

[VegasMan_72]

Originally Posted by LovetheAutumn

Between this and your comment on a hellish open-office plan, I gotta say....BigD, you are my spirit animal. You sound exactly like my husband and me!

Nah. More like a sad miserable soul. It's baffling to me how someone who hates their job so much and is "being pushed out" of this city, doesn't do anything about it.

[DFWMike]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

I've always enjoyed smaller cities more than larger ones. The biggest city I ever lived in was Paris and while I found it less stressful in many ways than DFW it was still too crowded, noisy, polluted, and expensive for my tastes. It was less stressful mainly because I didn't have to drive anywhere (didn't even own a car) and I worked only 35 hours a week (like most French people).

I was born here in the 70s and graduated high school in the early 90s so I saw a lot of growth over my lifetime, but I have vivid memories of the Dallas North Tollway ending at Frankford. I spent most of my adult life outside of DFW. I rarely even visited. People visited me instead because I was living in "exciting" or "sexy" places. When I got back, I was not pleased with all the changes. I didn't even intend to stay here long-term, it just sort of...happened.

Now I own a house and am getting remarried next month, so I'm pretty tied-down here to the area. Luckily my fiance is very open to the idea of leaving north Texas in the future. We'll get out of here someday. For now, family obligations keep us here. But those obligations won't last forever.

Being able to work from home would help a LOT. Especially since I wouldn't have to listen to my sexist sociopath coworkers all day long in this hellish open plan office.

I heard a quote once from Wayne Dyer that someone thinking about moving to his town asked how the city was. He replied, how is the city you're coming from? Once they got through complaining/complementing their own town, he replied, well that's probably what you can expect here. There was a book once called wherever you go there you are. I admit this is not a paradise, but it's a great place to live. Plenty of people to carve out a group of friends similar to yourself. Hell, I'm a liberal in Frisco, I'm doing fine. As far as materialistic, that's always been a dfw mainstay, find a friend group who isn't. How many people do you have to know? The one true negative I can come up with is the increased traffic on the tollways, but it isn't like this growth is a suprise, we all have known it was coming for years.

[Gordon Bombay]

I plan to move out in less than two years. The sooner the better. This city/area just doesn't offer very much in terms of natural beauty or quality of life.

Any ideas where I should move? Thinking of moving west.

[rantanamo]

Originally Posted by Gordon Bombay

I plan to move out in less than two years. The sooner the better. This city/area just doesn't offer very much in terms of natural beauty or quality of life.

Any ideas where I should move? Thinking of moving west.

quality of life = ?

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Gordon Bombay

I plan to move out in less than two years. The sooner the better. This city/area just doesn't offer very much in terms of natural beauty or quality of life.

Any ideas where I should move? Thinking of moving west.

We're thinking we'll bail to Colorado, Utah, or Idaho when the time comes. Check those out!

[Johnhw2]

Water out west is a broad long term issue. I visit NM but would not make it my one location for that reason. Also state income taxes are prevalent in desirable western states.

[NP78]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

Water out west is a broad long term issue. I visit NM but would not make it my one location for that reason. Also state income taxes are prevalent in desirable western states.

In terms of tax burden, other than California and Oregon, the overall tax burden variance is not that large. Some states have no income tax (Nevada, Washington, Wyoming), but those that do tend to be pretty modest (between 4.5 to 5% for AZ, NM, UT, CO) and combine with much lower property tax rates than we have here.

Generally, if you look at the overall personal tax burden from State and Local income taxes, most locations in the West (outside of CA and OR) will be within 1-2% of Texas (Texas comes out to around 7.5% of income paid into State and Local taxes, whereas the other states mentioned will be between 8 and 9.5%). It is a variance, but small enough that other lifestyle choices (commute length, house size, etc.) will have a much bigger impact on the financial decision.

Water is, and will be, a major long term issue in most of the West.