Afterthought - Califronians Move to Dallas ? (Plano, Amarillo: home, neighborhoods, public schools)

[BayTexan]

Fair enough. I presented my real life experience as well. My point was about the other poster comparing apples to oranges. 400K house in Dallas not comparable to 400K house in comparable CA neighborhood. So the property tax comparison is out of whack.

And I said can't use one data point to make a broad generalization. As you said, to each their own, and I respect your point of view and life experiences.



No kidding, really, never thought that I could not use myself as the only data point. Here is what the OP asked in case anyone has forgotten.


"I would love to hear from Californians who have moved from California to Dallas and changes observed monetarily and otherwise."


So to me, that's what a few on here have done. Trouble is the ones that want to argue with someone's actual real life experience and pitch the article or some broad data of the day.[/quote]

[LoveAussie]

Originally Posted by longhornsf

Agree. I've been reading this forum for a while and have noticed this trend. Some posters feel the need to attack anyone who has anything remotely negative to say about Texas, or positive to say about another state.

If you could be more specific about which area in CA you are comparing to with DFW, which kind of houses you are comparing to with which school, people from CA will understand more why your experience is completely different from theirs.

Most people I saw on this forum bashing Texas are usually comparing Apple to Orange. For example, some claims that Dallas house is expensive compared to CA, however, they gonna compare park cities to some area in CA with a school system scoring 5.

For areas in CA such as Palo Alto, houses price under $1.8M is rare, and is something like 2 bedrooms/1 Full bath creepy little house with restriction to rebuild. And even for other areas around SF, houses with acceptable school system (10/10/9 or 9/10/9 or something like that according to Asian standard) means serious bidding war will start. One of my friend put 150k more than the listing price and they still lost the house, and the house listed $1.5M at last sold at $1.8M.

Almost all the people I know move from CA to TX are from Bay area (sample size larger than 10 families), and these people actually like talking about how their lives getting better after moving here. I also know one person from San Diego but his experience is totally different, no doubt he likes CA more.

[longhornsf]

For areas in CA such as Palo Alto, houses price under $1.8M is rare

You're literally comparing one of the more expensive places in the world to the median home price in Dallas. Yes, homes in Palo Alto, Cupertino, Pacific Heights, etc. are expensive. The same could be said of homes in Manhattan, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Or in Highland Park for that matter. To keep using this comparison is ridiculous. The VAST majority of homes in California are not that expensive.

As I mentioned before, a better comparable for Dallas would be a neighborhood in Sacramento, Irvine, Oakland, etc. In other words, pick an area where middle to upper income people live and compare that to a similar neighborhood in Dallas. What I found as a somewhat recent transplant was that the home prices were surprisingly similar, though yes California was still more expensive.

All in, my cost of living including home price, taxes, etc. is probably 10-20% lower, but it's not the dramatic difference that some on here portray. Combine that with the worse weather and scenery and I'm probably about break even all things considered. To each their own though.

[vailbaby]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

I WISH.

If I had a dollar for everyone in Dallas who'd rather be in Colorado, I wouldn't have to work.

As someone who is moving to Dallas from CO in the next 1-2 years this makes me want to cry. 😂😂

[DTXman34]

Originally Posted by vailbaby

As someone who is moving to Dallas from CO in the next 1-2 years this makes me want to cry. 😂😂

You just got to figure out what you value the most. I think the less budget minded and miserable people that feel forced to live here, the better. No one wants to be surrounded by people that feel like they are stuck or forced to live in an area they don't like.

[vailbaby]

Originally Posted by DTXman34

You just got to figure out what you value the most. I think the less budget minded and miserable people that feel forced to live here, the better. No one wants to be surrounded by people that feel like they are stuck or forced to live in an area they don't like.

I actually really love the Dallas area. I come often (my husband works there) and people are just SO friendly. Much more so than in CO. Business wise it has so much more to offer. I regularly hear of people in my neighborhood relocating to Dallas/Houston. More than any other state.
Just difficult to leave a beautiful state that I grew up in (and family here).

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by longhornsf

Agree. I've been reading this forum for a while and have noticed this trend. Some posters feel the need to attack anyone who has anything remotely negative to say about Texas, or positive to say about another state.

I don't see that way at all.

The reality is every city and state has advantages and disadvantages. Around here we have a good deal of bad weather - thunder storms, hail, ice, droughts, explosive rainfall, occasional tornados, high straight line winds, and a good deal of very high temperatures. We have expansive clay soils that often cause foundation problems. Dallas proper has an unacceptably poor school district especially at the high school level. I don't find the local topography ugly in general but it certainly isn't beautiful. I could go on for a while.

On the good side. The area sports a number of really nice suburbs most of which have very strong school system and few are truly outstanding. We have an array of truly outstanding private schools. Along with a lot of other positives a key advantage DFW offers is a robust and very diversified economy and an excellent set of COL + tax versus income metrics for the overwhelming majority of people who earn decent incomes.

[vailbaby]

And universities! There are SO many to choose from- that are great Now I can understand why people never really have to leave Texas (I guess same can be said about California). In CO, there is literally only 1 school I would want my kids to attend. Everything else is sub par IMO. Very very limited choices that will force you to go out of state and spend a ton of $ on college.
With 3 children, this is a huge motivator for me to move to TX.

[EDS_]

No kidding, really, never thought that I could not use myself as the only data point. Here is what the OP asked in case anyone has forgotten.


"I would love to hear from Californians who have moved from California to Dallas and changes observed monetarily and otherwise."


So to me, that's what a few on here have done. Trouble is the ones that want to argue with someone's actual real life experience and pitch the article or some broad data of the day.[/quote]

_______________________________________

1. Look one of the other guys posted what was and remains an inaccurate claim and followed that up with a categorically bogus numerical example. That kind of thing deserves and is always going to get pushback on top of that the OP should know as much.

2. Why are you so hung up on the data I use/have showed? If it's wrong why not explain why, you and I both know you can't.

[longhornsf]

Why are you so hung up on the data I use/have showed? If it's wrong why not explain why, you and I both know you can't.

Several posters on here of poked plenty of holes in your data. You're obviously not going to change your mind. You seem to have some bizarre little brother syndrome going on where you get envious if people say anything positive about another state.