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Why are so many people leaving the area to move to Texas? What is the draw?
There's always been a "back and forth" current between California and Texas, but especially Southern California and Texas!
Some people (usually of a far right-wing persuasion) in California get their 24/7 news feed from Fox News or right-wing talk radio. These people think it is their "god-given" right to own military grade weapons and hate on LGBT people, Hispanics, or whatever. They also think paying taxes and social investment is a waste of their money.
They think the grass is greener in Texas, so they move there.
Then...eventually...they find that wages are lower and property taxes are higher. They also find that the same "scary" gay people, Hispanics and liberals they were terrified of in California also inhabit Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and Austin -- the cities that they have to live close to find a decent wage.
Many of these people will come back to California if they've had enough time to mellow out and if/when they realize that Texas and their far-right politics weren't everything they're cracked up to be. These people usually have family that (thankfully for them) stayed behind in California so they have resources to come back to.
Others will find a grudging "happiness" and stay in Texas (usually because they have no other choice) or move on to some other Southern state. Or, they'll try Arizona for awhile.
Read Aesop's fable about the fox and the grapes if you want to better understand these people.
I have lived in both, though mainly in SoCal. The biggest factor taking people away from SoCal toward TX or other places is probably the cost of living. You need a salary of $146k to afford a median-priced home in OC. In TX you can buy a home for that. Are people generally more conservative in TX? Yes, but as kttam points out you can find people of every persuasion everywhere. The most gay-friendly neighborhood I've lived in (and I live in Palm Springs now) was Montrose in Houston. When I think about which place I prefer to live in, a few things come to mind. Weather - other parts of TX are not as bad in this respect but the gulf coast humidity, wow, it's pretty stifling for about 6 months of the year. Plus lots of mosquitoes. Government - in TX my governor and state government were actively working against me as gay person. I'm happy to pay CA taxes to live in a state that doesn't hate it citizens. Natural resources - there are nice places in TX, such as the hill country and west Texas. But generally it can't match California. The Gulf of Mexico is a poor substitute for the Pacific. There are plusses to living in TX. It is generally less crowded (though the big cities have bad traffic just like we do). There is no state income tax. Dining out is relatively cheap and there's lots of good food. Lots of things are a lot cheaper.
A lot of it has to be with someone's job being moved out of state. You will hear about moves on the scale of Toyota, but not so much about the daily leak of dozens of well paying jobs. Those jobs may be replaced in the Silicon Valley, but it won't help the rest of California.
My job was moved to Texas in 2014. In March of that year I was told I could accept a transfer or a severance. I had two weeks to decide and was given a Monday in August to report. I work for a mainframe software company and had been in this job for 22 years at the time. The market for my skill is not huge, especially considering that I had spent that time automating my prior job. So I was faced with starting over in my late 50s, in the tepid economic recovery that had been happening over the past few years. I had been on a few 1 week trips to the North Texas area where my job was being moved, and thought it was a nice enough area, not CA by any means, but OK for a few years. One adult child at home and another out on her own but still single.
As it turns out, the economy of North Texas doesn't grow organically. It is highly dependent on attracting jobs from elsewhere. The obvious assumption is that those transplants are going to require houses, plus doctors and dentists, will shop for groceries, and their kids will go to school, meaning teaching jobs, which further the economy. In addition to that, the transplants would also create a bunch of retail and restaurant jobettes.
Now North TX has seen a spike in housing costs, which makes housing unreachable for the previous residents, accompanied by an increase in congestion, which means the universally unpopular road construction. Increased school attendance means school construction, with the capital outlay.
The drawback that TX ignores is that most transplants bring trailing spouses. Each one of them who are in the workforce causes more competition for jobs in the area, making employment harder to find for current residents. This is where we found out that the employment market was not on fire here.
I had assumed my wife would be able to immediately resume her highly portable skills in early childhood education management. That really wasn't the case, and in addition, the potential employers already were identifying their lines of succession among current employees. Over a year later, after being willing to downgrade one level of management, she started working as a classroom teacher, and after 18 months of that, is finally getting in the pipeline to get back to her old job.
Over all this, reigns a new paranoia that the newcomers will try to make TX like California, as if that was even possible. It does seem that In-N-Out Burger is popular, not just among transplants, but also with local teenagers, who forgo their inferior McWhatsitburger. Of course, instead of scolding people who have been uprooted by job transfers, they would do better to petition their government to stop the incentives for moving jobs from other states.
That is the long and rambling story of jobs leaving California for Texas, and people who don't have a lot of choice but to go where their job takes them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kttam186290
There's always been a "back and forth" current between California and Texas, but especially Southern California and Texas!
Some people (usually of a far right-wing persuasion) in California get their 24/7 news feed from Fox News or right-wing talk radio. These people think it is their "god-given" right to own military grade weapons and hate on LGBT people, Hispanics, or whatever. They also think paying taxes and social investment is a waste of their money.
They think the grass is greener in Texas, so they move there.
Then...eventually...they find that wages are lower and property taxes are higher. They also find that the same "scary" gay people, Hispanics and liberals they were terrified of in California also inhabit Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and Austin -- the cities that they have to live close to find a decent wage.
Many of these people will come back to California if they've had enough time to mellow out and if/when they realize that Texas and their far-right politics weren't everything they're cracked up to be. These people usually have family that (thankfully for them) stayed behind in California so they have resources to come back to.
Others will find a grudging "happiness" and stay in Texas (usually because they have no other choice) or move on to some other Southern state. Or, they'll try Arizona for awhile.
Read Aesop's fable about the fox and the grapes if you want to better understand these people.
Short version of the above: "They" move to Texas be near people who are like "them", in a place where "they" can cling to their guns, and get away from the people "they" allegedly "hate", and not have to invest in The Greater Good. All because of Fox News.
Although overly generalized, it does describe part of the outflow accurately. I can't judge exactly how many people it describes. More accurate is that a lot of people leaving CA are doing it for economic reasons. They may have trouble keeping up with the expense of living in California, and get caught up in the pro-Texas hype. They may feel like they would be able to have a larger house or their own pool. They may be following family. They may want to trade pervasive smog for moderate smog. They may want to go to a place where the public employee unions don't control the legislature. They may want to move to a place which has legalized same sex marriage the same number of times California has.. zero. Others, like me, were left with an ultimatum to go where the job goes, or risk your future.
I disliked Texas before making the move, and think about moving back west every day. Much of what you said is true, about insane property taxes, and about liberals controlling the cities. I notice that people here in TX are nice. Maybe it is as fake as everyone says, but to be honest, in the IE, people hold doors, and if you sneeze, everyone within 30 feet says "bless you", so maybe people are just generally good inside, but have different outlooks on how to make society prosper. I would like to have stayed to see California voters take the state down a better path, but I guess that will have to wait until I find my way back.
Why are so many people leaving the area to move to Texas? What is the draw?
Less expensive, a lot of interesting paces to visit and easy access to the Gulf with warm water, unlike SoCal, extremely friendly people. Far less taxes and fees than CA and you can get a nice house and as much property as you want or don't want; your choice. Then it is an easy drive to many other States without driving forever through a desert to get there. I lived near Dallas and while it got hot in Summer the humidity was not a constant issue as the weather varied from off the Gulf to from the North. SoCal (Coastal) has the best weather in the Country but living there is now a real pain. Some simply do not see what CA has as worth the headaches and move to a more relaxed and less expensive area. I moved from TX back "home" to SoCal, Murrieta, but not for the Weather, but to help family. Mind you I love SoCal but do not like what it has become. My wife and left for East TN after about 9 years and visit SoCal occasionally to enjoy what we like and then leave to avoid what we do not like.
I lived in Houston and Austin. I moved to SoCal for the geography. I love mountains and the climate is nice. I also like the politics of here better. Honestly though, I think a lot of people do it for the jobs.
I got the experience and education over there and then brought it here so my pay was higher. If I had come out here with less experience and degrees, it would have been a big struggle and I wouldn't have done it. In my industry (education), the pay out here evens out the higher taxes and higher cost of living. I would be making 20-30k less if I'd stayed where I was and making much less if I'd stayed in Austin (Austin is awful. It has a higher cost of living and lower pay because people really want to live there).
There are benefits and drawbacks to both places. It's really apples and oranges to compare. Texas has no income tax (at the state level) but has crazy property taxes.
In my opinion though the property tax situation is better than income tax because no matter your legally documented employment status, everyone pays property tax. Even if you're a renter, the homeowner charges rent that will cover their profit and property tax bill. In that way it kind of makes it more fair overall.
Everyone pays the same percentage of property value in their tax bill (or rent). So if you're a billionaire or an off the books worker you still contribute to running the state.
California is a much nicer place to live. But, if you're the type that has to live in a conservative paradise, you know who you are, and Texas will be perfect for you. Of course, so would Nazi Germany, but that's not available currently.
I'm currently considering moving to TX since people in my field are paid about 50k more on average and houses are much cheaper! I've lived in Southern California my entire life, so the conservative climate that TX has does scare me somewhat.
BMWguy you can go do the Dallas forum and look through all the threads:
"Will my Prius be run off the road by a pickup truck?"
"If I get stopped by the police and do not have a Bible in my possession does that add to my sentence?"
"Will my Prius be run off the road for not having an anti-abortion sticker?"
"Are there any Whole Foods in TX?"
"I am a vegetarian. Will my pastor put me into an intervention program?"
"Are there dentists in TX?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by fasttimes1
California is a much nicer place to live. But, if you're the type that has to live in a conservative paradise, you know who you are, and Texas will be perfect for you. Of course, so would Nazi Germany, but that's not available currently.
Agree CA is a much nicer place to live and I was the first on the thread to warn everyone not to move to TX. However I do understand how people can be frustrated with the one-party rule, elections influenced by public employee unions, and attitudes which are reflected by your hostile quote with the "conservative paradise" exaggeration, the "you know who you are" innuendo, and the obligatory careless reference to "Nazi Germany".
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