Moving from Huntington Beach, CA to Dallas? (Houston, Fort Worth: renting, to buy)

[RJ312]

Originally Posted by nross33

Haha yes, I am ready for it and willing to adapt. I do have enough money saved where I could not work and still live a normal life for two years or so, that is why I was thinking of just moving and not looking back.

You could move here without a job, as I did. I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing so. The circumstances specific to me were that I wasn't going to get a job in my field without relocating first. I had to get on the ground here and then get an offer as a local candidate. Perhaps though circumstances do not apply to you.

You should rent if you come here. I'm not sure that I would recommend coming here, and the next quote will further illustrate that.

Originally Posted by NTXPerson

What kind of job are you looking for?

Just to warn you, DFW is, of course, more conservative than California, but you still have a good mix of conservative and liberal. However, for the most part, people here respect each other's differences and don't bring up politics or religion in casual conversation.

The cost of living is less expensive here, so OP would benefit there. But OP will not find the political climate that he desires by moving here.

Orange County is rapidly liberalizing. The conservatives are leaving. Hillary Clinton won Orange County in 2016, the first Democratic Party presidential candidate to do so in 80 years. A lot of the U.S. House districts in Orange County are Democratic Party controlled.

The city of Dallas and Dallas County are more liberal than Orange County but not as liberal as Los Angeles County. Democrats routinely win Dallas County elections by a 30% margin. The richest area of Dallas County (the Park Cities enclave) is represented by a far left socialist.

Collin County, which is the northern suburbs of Dallas, has some similarity to Orange County. Think of Collin County as like Orange County 20 years ago in terms of political ideologies. However, Collin County has very few people who are 18-26 and single. Collin County is mostly people who are married with children under 18.

You probably should live in Dallas and keep your mouth shut about your political viewpoints when you are in-person with people. You would be able to take advantage of a better COL if you moved here, but you're not really improving your political circumstances. You need to live in one of the more liberal areas to be able to reach a critical mass of singles in your age cohort.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by RJ312

Orange County is rapidly liberalizing. The conservatives are leaving. Hillary Clinton won Orange County in 2016, the first Democratic Party presidential candidate to do so in 80 years. A lot of the U.S. House districts in Orange County are Democratic Party controlled.

The same is true for most suburban areas near major cities around the US. And it has little to do with “rapid liberalizing” and everything to do with the fact that educated suburban women hate / are horrified by President Trump. Where the Republican Party goes from here will determine whether these areas temporarily switched sides (“lesser of two evils”) or are actually experiencing an ideology change.

[MarshaBrady1968]

Points to consider, though some are repeats, and I have lived in both places, FYI:

- It's hot here. HOT. Like you can die from it, and it is oppressive and long, and does not even have relief at night. I just cannot stress this enough. Take the heat in the central valley and add to it 90% humidity, and extend the 100 degree days by triple

- There is other extreme weather here that will be shocking to you as well, but the heat is the worst of it

- Dallas Metro area is mostly blue now. You can however, find plenty of conservatives the further out you get, and on the Fort Worth side even more so.

- City "stuff" that makes life easier such as roads, parking, buildings, city services, and schools are WAY better in Dallas. This comes at the expense of the horrible weather and total and complete lack of scenery

My personal opinion:
I will leave politics and religion out of it because I am a far left Unitarian, so we would definitely differ on those points. At my (old) age, I just can no longer take the heat, humidity, bugs, and seriously considering leaving to grow old in a more scenic environment. That said, there are many wonderful things about Dallas which make life fun and easy that are making it a difficult decision.

Best of luck!

[JTC Mom]

Rent an apartment in Addison. It's a reasonably central suburb with good proximity to lots of job centers, including Legacy/Plano, Richardson, Las Colinas and downtown Dallas. There are also plenty of restaurants, shopping and services nearby and plenty of apartments and rental townhomes. Once you get a job and decide for sure you want to stay, then you can look for the right place to buy a house.

[Sheepdog1015]

Look in the Collin County area, Frisco/McKinney. Seems to be a lot of like minded people in that area fleeing CA for a better place to live. Along with that there is a lot of jobs in the area.

[Beardown91737]

I moved here from SoCal in 2014. I am also in IT. I was given a choice of working in Plano or being terminated, and was in my late 50s so I moved. I was thinking Plano looked nice, but I had really not been off the main roads.

Some of this will be repetitive but I will repeat it
1. Hot in summer and humid even at night. I lived in the IE so I know heat, but it was dry heat.
2. Cool and blustery in the winter with incessant winds.
3. Drivers are worse than even OC, including Irvine. Mostly following way too close, and driving exactly beside you. It isn't the people in the pickup trucks. They allow for the possibility that you may be armed. It is the ones who learned to drive as adults that are the problem.
4. Property taxes are insane. Sales taxes are about the same. Sure there is no state income tax but you don't pay income tax if you don't have an income. You still have to pay property tax if you don't have an income.
5. The earth moves out from under your house and you face expensive foundation repair.
6. New housing builds abound, to the point where there is more building of houses than people who know how to build houses correctly.
7. Single family homeowners in Collin County rail against building more apartments, which will lead to more young adults living with parents, meaning crowded neighborhoods with street parking on the artificially narrow streets.
8. I came here to keep my job but my wife has had to restart her career here and it has been difficult for her to break into the management progression. After 18 months she decided to accept lower level work and the way back up has been slow and filled with obstacles.
9. As far as I can tell, the city of Dallas is following the path of major northern cities into dysfunctionality.

Having said all that, I did not feel political hostility in the IE. Also I think that the declarations that this area is turning blue are wishful thinking and in some cases, willful gaslighting.

One other adjustment for someone coming from HB is that there is no oil in this area. However the main thing you will notice is the nasty weather.

On the positive side, I have had only a few mosquito bites in the past 5 years.

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by MarshaBrady1968

Points to consider, though some are repeats, and I have lived in both places, FYI:

- It's hot here. HOT. Like you can die from it, and it is oppressive and long, and does not even have relief at night. I just cannot stress this enough. Take the heat in the central valley and add to it 90% humidity, and extend the 100 degree days by triple

You are right about the heat but the 90% humidity is way off. Even the most humid days register at around 50% to 60% humidity, not 90%.

[TheOverdog]

You are right about the heat but the 90% humidity is way off. Even the most humid days register at around 50% to 60% humidity, not 90%.

He's right in spirit, if not technically since humidity is relative and hot air can hold a lot more water than colder air, which is why the relative humidity falls to 50%. Dallas is still among the most humid places in the US, and most of the places in the US more humid than Dallas are closer to the coast or other large bodies of water than Dallas is and get substantially more rainfall.

[calgirlinnc]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

He's right in spirit, if not technically since humidity is relative and hot air can hold a lot more water than colder air, which is why the relative humidity falls to 50%. Dallas is still among the most humid places in the US and most of the places in the US more humid than Dallas are closer to the coast or other large bodies of water than Dallas is and get substantially more rainfall.

Here's a list of the top 50 metro areas in the US, ranked by humidity:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/finance...090000494.html


Dallas is #32.

The truth is, when it is over 100 here, it not also concurrently 90% humidity.

Here is a list of the top 50 places in the US based on relative humidity. Neither Dallas nor Fort Worth make the list although other places in Texas do:

https://bestlifeonline.com/humid-places-america/

[WorldKlas]

There is lots of opportunity and a lower cost of living in North Texas. Homes are relatively affordable for a major metro area. However, if you seek a more conservative environment, I suggest you consider residing in Tarrant County - the Fort Worth side of the metropolitan area. If you like the burbs better, check into Grapevine or North Euless or even the residential areas of the City of Fort Worth like Arlington Heights. You could consider taking a sublet (look in temp housing on Craigslist) and then registering with a few temporary agencies that place IT jobs just to get into the swing of working and living in the DFW area.