Looking for small town (Lubbock, Waco: school district, tornadoes, living)

[MWNN]

I am looking for small town in Texas that has beautiful scenery, is nice to raise family and where land is cheap.Thank you

[Kerby W-R]

Originally Posted by MWNN

I am looking for small town in Texas that has beautiful scenery, is nice to raise family and where land is cheap.Thank you

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. In my opinion the Texas Hill Country is the most scenic area of Texas. There are many beautiful towns there. Mason...would be my 1st choice.

[ChristieP]

That just described 1/3 of the state. Depends on your idea of what is "beautiful" since that could mean east Texas piney woods, west Texas rolling hills, the hill country, or along the coast!

[MWNN]

No east Texas and no coast.

[High_Plains_Retired]

A few good folks like the Texas south plains but most of our scenery can be best seen by looking up on a summer night. Our winters can be harsh and we have dust storms, tornadoes, hail, ice storms, coyotes, bobcats and tumbleweeds. On the other hand we also have sunsets and sunrises that have more colors than Crayola and good people.

[texasdiver]

Thousands of places fit your description if you don't care about finding a job and don't much care about the quality of the local schools.

If, on the other hand, you care about the local economy and care about the quality of the local schools then your options are going to be substantially less.

In any event, you won't find all scenic, cheap, good schools, and good economy all in the same location as they are mutually exclusive.

[doctorjef]

The combination of beauty, cheap land, and small town (as opposed to out in the middle of literally nowhere) is difficult. How far out of a town is acceptable to you? Your kids would still be in a consolidated school district and have school bus service even living several miles from a small town. What is your definition of cheap land? How many acres? Basically, I think you want some very rural bit of Central Texas, or perhaps some part of North Texas in the westerly direction (e.g. Albany, if you find more prairie ranch country attractive; or Stephenville, a little more to the south, with some gently rolling hills punctuating what is also basically prairie country). The other option would be to try to find something out in the West Texas Caprock ranch country, but you are then going to be pretty much in the middle of nowhere. An exception is Post, which is just past that country on the way to Lubbock -- very nice little town with scenic country close by. Of course, if you could find some affordable land near Alpine or Fort Davis, it is beautiful out there. The Central TX Hill Country is all going to be pricier, I think, although you could get out around Andice or Florence or Wahlburg (sp?) in Williamson Co, or maybe out around Burnet in Burnet Co. and find some relatively less expensive land. Llano is beautiful, but don't know what land costs around there. I've also always thought it was rather pretty around Lampasas, but again don't know what you could find there in terms of "cheap land". I guess actually there are potentially a lot of places. As a previous poster noted, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Price may be more inflexible.

Texasdiver above is absolutely correct!

[doctorjef]

Bosque County might be another good bet. Clifton is the largest population centre, but a sleepy little town nearby is Cranfill's Gap. Bosque Co. is the historic Norwegian settlement area in Texas. You also aren't terribly far from Waco, for resources of a larger place. The rural areas in Bosque Co. (most of the county, actually) are IMO quite pretty.

[Pooua]

Fort Davis
Marfa
Balmorhea
Toyhavale
Mingus
Strewn
Eastland
Rhome
Decatur
Bowie
Pelican Bay
Cedar Hill
Fredericksburg
Uvalde

[catman]

Fort Davis is at the top of my list, followed by Alpine and Marfa.