Young family thinking of moving from Sacramento, CA to Texas (Dallas: apartment, rental market)

[redpapercrane]

My fiance and I have been tossing around the idea of moving out of California for a while now. We're a young family (we're both in our early 20s) with an 18 month old daughter. I'm a photographer, he works as a technician for a large satellite provider, but his true love is sound engineering and his dream is to open a recording studio. We're currently renting in a Sacramento area suburb, and talking about purchasing a home and expanding our family in the next few years. We're feeling discouraged by our current situation, living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay the $1400 rent for our 3 bedroom home. We were both born and raised in California, he's from the East Bay and I've lived in the same town my entire life, so the idea of leaving our friends and families is pretty scary, but we worry that we'll never be able to afford the life that we want here in Sacramento.
We've settled on Texas, as he has family in the DFW area who moved from the Bay and absolutely love it. We're looking in to Dallas and Austin, Dallas for the family, Austin because I'm told it's like the Portland of Texas (agree/disagree?) and the music scene appeals to my fiance. We're both quite liberal, and obviously we're not moving to Texas to find like-minded people, but would we feel totally out of place in Dallas? What are the communities like? And in either area or its suburbs, would we be able to find an affordable, older home with character and a decent sized yard?
Basically I'm pretty clueless about Texas, I've never even been, so anything you could tell me, especially if you've moved from CA, would be really helpful. Thanks!

[Westerntraveler]

I would visit Texas first before moving here.

[TexasVines]

don't move here

if you are struggling to pay $1400 for a three bedroom house you will have zero appreciable change in lifestyle anywhere in Texas and anywhere that you find a three bedroom house that rents for $1400 or less will have crappy schools and generally be a crappy area

even if you can find one in a decent area for $1200 saving $200 a month on rent will make little difference in living standards especially if you foolishly have another kid before you develop some type of job skills that will allow you to increase your standard of living

you are not struggling because you live in an expensive place to live you are struggling because you had a kid in your very early 20s out of wedlock and before either of you had developed any type of useful and well paying job skills

the only way to make money in "photography" of any decent amount is to have a client list and references that refer more business to you.....you will leave that behind in California if you have that now and if you don't have that now in a place where you know people and have family ties there is little chance you will develop that here in Texas.....news papers are laying people off left and right and Sears and other photography and portrait places pay terrible and there is little chance you will break into taking school photos ect because there are long established people working those gigs

Installing Sat. TV is just another commodity job as well and they will be difficult to land in Texas because there are already plenty of people here with a kid in their early 20s that have found out their dream career required actual skills and degrees so they had to turn to sat. installation to get a pay check.....it is a long hour job that often requires your own car with massive turnover and long hours now including weekends

being a sound engineer is highly competitive and the "music scene" in Austin is highly overrated as far as what it actually produces or delivers in terms of real jobs and real revenues and there are again already PLENTY of people bunking on friends couches ect looking to be a sound engineer or looking to start a sound studio with little money to do so....and UT and Texas State both produce degree holding sound engineers that have meaningful experience on high quality equipment from recognized programs and the VAST majority of them will be looking to stay in Austin and Texas before going anywhere else so the chances of breaking in against that are extremely remote and again what Austin actually delivers in terms of real music industry jobs VS the hype is vastly overrated

anyone that tells you that you can move to Texas especially Austin and even dallas while on a paycheck to paycheck budget that struggles to afford $1400 a month in rent for a three bedroom house and that you will be able to live in a nice area with good schools, find jobs easily in any of those fields, much less buy a house or expand your family, is a MASSIVE fool and you should ignore their stupid advice

and the reality is as well many of the hipster doofus, urban, older home, with a cute house areas they tell you that you might be able to afford to live in while hoping the crappy school district in the area does not rezone the schools for your house before your kid gets into the one good school or the few good schools will most likely be a LONG ways away from where you will actually be able to find employment so you will spend a great deal of time in your cars and eat up a great deal of your "savings" and "better lifestyle" cash driving back and forth from whatever area some dolt convinced you that you had to live in to your work a day paycheck to paycheck job and more than likely it will have marginal (at best) schools

you need to stay where you are, depend on your family for child care, get on birth control, move into a cheaper two bedroom house or apartment, start saving money, develop some type of actual job skills either through school or through moving up at your current jobs and cut out unneeded expenses from your life by possibly going with a single car and the money you save doing all of that (a few hundred a month) will be much better for you than moving here with low skill commodity jobs and no money and little family support and no knowledge of the areas and hoping that a couple hundred a month savings on rent will improve your lifestyle in any meaningful way after that move.....if you save any money at all

do not move here period and anyone that tells you I am a party pooper or a negative nelly or something other than someone telling you the honest truth is just a buffoon setting you up for a lot of future failure

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by redpapercrane

My fiance and I have been tossing around the idea of moving out of California for a while now. We're a young family (we're both in our early 20s) with an 18 month old daughter. I'm a photographer, he works as a technician for a large satellite provider, but his true love is sound engineering and his dream is to open a recording studio. We're currently renting in a Sacramento area suburb, and talking about purchasing a home and expanding our family in the next few years. We're feeling discouraged by our current situation, living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay the $1400 rent for our 3 bedroom home. We were both born and raised in California, he's from the East Bay and I've lived in the same town my entire life, so the idea of leaving our friends and families is pretty scary, but we worry that we'll never be able to afford the life that we want here in Sacramento.
We've settled on Texas, as he has family in the DFW area who moved from the Bay and absolutely love it. We're looking in to Dallas and Austin, Dallas for the family, Austin because I'm told it's like the Portland of Texas (agree/disagree?) and the music scene appeals to my fiance. We're both quite liberal, and obviously we're not moving to Texas to find like-minded people, but would we feel totally out of place in Dallas? What are the communities like? And in either area or its suburbs, would we be able to find an affordable, older home with character and a decent sized yard?
Basically I'm pretty clueless about Texas, I've never even been, so anything you could tell me, especially if you've moved from CA, would be really helpful. Thanks!

Well, considering that Im very left of center on most things, moved to Dallas from LA, dont feel even a little out of place, and love it here, I cant imagine that you would feel out of place whatsoever. I love the ethnic diversity and the food in my suburb. Politics never come up with neighbors and rarely so with friends, so it doesnt really matter.

That said you may prefer Austin.

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by redpapercrane

My fiance and I have been tossing around the idea of moving out of California for a while now. We're a young family (we're both in our early 20s) with an 18 month old daughter. I'm a photographer, he works as a technician for a large satellite provider, but his true love is sound engineering and his dream is to open a recording studio. We're currently renting in a Sacramento area suburb, and talking about purchasing a home and expanding our family in the next few years. We're feeling discouraged by our current situation, living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay the $1400 rent for our 3 bedroom home. We were both born and raised in California, he's from the East Bay and I've lived in the same town my entire life, so the idea of leaving our friends and families is pretty scary, but we worry that we'll never be able to afford the life that we want here in Sacramento.
We've settled on Texas, as he has family in the DFW area who moved from the Bay and absolutely love it. We're looking in to Dallas and Austin, Dallas for the family, Austin because I'm told it's like the Portland of Texas (agree/disagree?) and the music scene appeals to my fiance. We're both quite liberal, and obviously we're not moving to Texas to find like-minded people, but would we feel totally out of place in Dallas? What are the communities like? And in either area or its suburbs, would we be able to find an affordable, older home with character and a decent sized yard?
Basically I'm pretty clueless about Texas, I've never even been, so anything you could tell me, especially if you've moved from CA, would be really helpful. Thanks!

Redpapercrane your more than welcome to move here. $1400 is about average for a 3 bedroom place here in Austin, OTOH Dallas maybe more or less depending on where your moving to. As for Austin it's a live and let live city so it's pretty laid back.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by TexasVines

don't move here

if you are struggling to pay $1400 for a three bedroom house you will have zero appreciable change in lifestyle anywhere in Texas and anywhere that you find a three bedroom house that rents for $1400 or less will have crappy schools and generally be a crappy area

even if you can find one in a decent area for $1200 saving $200 a month on rent will make little difference in living standards especially if you foolishly have another kid before you develop some type of job skills that will allow you to increase your standard of living

anyone that tells you that you can move to Texas especially Austin and even dallas while on a paycheck to paycheck budget that struggles to afford $1400 a month in rent for a three bedroom house and that you will be able to live in a nice area with good schools, find jobs easily in any of those fields, much less buy a house or expand your family, is a MASSIVE fool and you should ignore their stupid advice

This, all of it.

[redpapercrane]

Thanks, but I didn't post on an Internet forum for family planning and life advice from a stranger, I merely asked for some information.

Thank you to those of you who answered some of my questions, I appreciate it. We obviously intend to visit Texas as soon as possible (my fiancé has actually spent a lot of time in the Dallas area visiting his family). I assure you, this isn't a decision we take lightly, and we're about a year out from any potential move.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by redpapercrane

Thanks, but I didn't post on an Internet forum for family planning and life advice from a stranger, I merely asked for some information.

Thank you to those of you who answered some of my questions, I appreciate it. We obviously intend to visit Texas as soon as possible (my fiancé has actually spent a lot of time in the Dallas area visiting his family). I assure you, this isn't a decision we take lightly, and we're about a year out from any potential move.

You really should listen to TexasVines. If you're struggling to make a $1400 rent in California, you won't find life here easy either...plus you will be far from a built-in support system. I think you should stay where you are. Dallas's rental market is very tight and 1400 won't get you what you want.

[redpapercrane]

TexasVines could have said exactly that and I would have thanked them for their input and taken it in to consideration, but the rest of the post was unnecessary.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by redpapercrane

Thanks, but I didn't post on an Internet forum for family planning and life advice from a stranger, I merely asked for some information.

Thank you to those of you who answered some of my questions, I appreciate it. We obviously intend to visit Texas as soon as possible (my fiancé has actually spent a lot of time in the Dallas area visiting his family). I assure you, this isn't a decision we take lightly, and we're about a year out from any potential move.

BigDGeek and Texasvines do have a point which you should probably heed. If your budget is $1400 for a 3 bedroom house rental, take Austin completely off the list. You might be able to live in a less than safe neighborhood in Dallas for that, or perhaps one of the less developed burbs.

Im not as familiar with the cost of living in Sacramento as I am in Southern California, but paying $1400 for a rental home would be considered cheap in Dallas or Austin. In LA, $1400 would get you a studio or at best one bedroom.