West Texas help please (Lubbock, Abilene: university, live in, restaurants)

[yockee]

Great job on the Abilene area. Can you info me on home prices 2000SF + garage in Abilene, Property Taxes, vehicle registration?

[WestTexan87]

Well, my family and I currently live in a one-story brick home in an upper-middle class neighborhood down the street from a golf course/country club. It was built in 1984 and currently has 2,659 sq ft of living space plus 260 sq ft of porches and an 800 sq ft 4-car garage. Its current appraisal value is $179,117 and similar homes in the neighborhood have gone for over $200K lately. Our taxes due for 2006 were roughly $4,000.

[west2texas]

Originally Posted by WestTexan87

Well, my family and I currently live in a one-story brick home in an upper-middle class neighborhood down the street from a golf course/country club. It was built in 1984 and currently has 2,659 sq ft of living space plus 260 sq ft of porches and an 800 sq ft 4-car garage. Its current appraisal value is $179,117 and similar homes in the neighborhood have gone for over $200K lately. Our taxes due for 2006 were roughly $4,000.

That sounds like a nice big house.....Are the property taxes formulated on how much Sq ft. of living space?

I am just curious about what to expect.......

I have read that Texas has some steep property taxes...But no state tax

My mother / brother / and sister in laws live in Austin / Georgetown and theirs are pretty steep.....

We won't need that large of a house...But I expected it to be higher than what I pay now....

What are the main businesses in Abilene? Companies?

How are the high schools? My son plays football and is in the band? Programs? He is in a great school system now with great programs....

We are looking into visiting Austin/relatives then taking a road trip to visit Abilene/Midland/SanAngelo over a few days...

Thanks for the help to everyone....Southern hospitality is hard to beat!

[WestTexan87]

I'm only 19, so taxes aren't my thing yet, but I know that appraisal value is assessed by square footage and what the footage is used for. For instance, in my neighborhood, "living space" goes for roughly $50 per sq ft while garages and porches go for considerably less. Also factored in is land value. Our 1/3-acre lot is appraised at about $30K. From this, the taxes are applied according to the total appraisal value. When the last appraisals came out, they valued our house originally at well over $180K which would have been an almost $50K jump from the previous year because we closed in our old garage and turned it into living space and built the new 4-car garage. My dad had to go argue with them to get about $10K knocked off to lower our taxes. Sorry, I know I'm just rambling because I really am lost when it comes to bureaucratic stuff like taxes, but I hope this helps in some small way. Visit www.taylor-cad.org for info on taylor county appraisals, etc.

The top employers in Abilene are as follows (with # of employees)
1. Dyess Air Force Base (6309)
2. Hendrick Health System (3000)
3. Abilene ISD (2785)
4. Abilene State School (1250)
5. Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice (1235)
6. City of Abilene (1153)
7. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Texas Insurance (1111)
8. Abilene Christian University (850)
9. Abilene Regional Medical Center (700)
10. Taylor County (537)
11. Sears Methodist Retirement System (475)
12. US Postal Service (350)
13. Hardin-Simmons University (312)
14. Eagle Aviation Services (303)
15. Wylie ISD (300)
16. Abtex Beverage (270)
17. McMurry University (265)
18. First Financial Bank (258)
19. Teleperformance USA (238)
20. Fehr Foods (233)
21. Abilene Reporter-News (225)
22. AEP (223)
23. Coca-Cola (217)
24. Mrs. Baird's Bakery (200)
25. Betty Hardwick Center (183)
26. Lauren Engineers (182)
27. Rentech Boiler Systems (160)
28. Tige' Boats (150)
29. Abilene Building Maintenance (150)

High Schools: I graduated in 2005 from Cooper High School in southern Abilene. My sister graduated in 2003. The school has wonderful teachers and a great sense of pride and tradition. Enrollment in both Cooper and Abilene High have been slipping in recent years due to many families living in suburban Abilene and, thus, in other school districts. This has caused some pessimism among locals because it is hard for a small 5A school with 2,000 students to compete with large 5A schools with 4 or 5,000. It's still a wonderful school district. I was in band from 6th grade all the way through my freshman year in college. I was in all-region band for 4 years, all-area band for 4 years and all-state band once. Look at Midland and Odessa if you want some truly incredible bands. Abilene High's director is a bit of a dud and Cooper recently went through a rather tumultuous change of staff which it is still recovering from. However, I lived through it and most of my friends are from high school band. It was the best 4 years of my life. Academically, AISD is great. I took literally dozens of AP/honors courses and I ended up earning many hours of college credit through national exams. I also am a big supporter of the art programs at Cooper. I went to all-state art for 2 years and Cooper has some of the best art teachers around. On another note, check out Wylie ISD as well. It takes in southern Abilene and the southern rural areas near town. It currently has one 3A high school which is consistently ranked one of the best in the state. The band placed 3rd in the state for marching just recently and the football team won the 3A state title 2 years ago. It's a great school district.

I hope your trip goes well. Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to learn or if you have any more questions.

[conanS]

West2Texas, Just by looking at the post written by a 19 year-old from Abilene speaks volumes of the schools there. I know MANY adults that don't use proper grammar or punctuation, can't spell squat, and aren't anywhere near as articulate as this young man. I would hope he is just an average by-product of the Abilene school district!

[txsn]

One great advantage of the midland/odessa area is the airport. Its small enough to not be crowded but large enough to get you anywhere. I live 45 miles from the airport and can leave my house 1 hour before the flight is set to leave (no speeding either)and still get to the gate in time for boarding. Hardly ever long lines at ticket counter or security. Compared to flying out of dallas or similar where you would need to leave 2-3 hours early. Southwest doesnt fly to san angelo or abilene so you will probably have to flight to dallas or houston first no matter where your going...

[WENDYINLOW]

Why not try Andrews, TX? This a great community to live in. I moved here 17 years ago after getting married (from Houston) and I have loved every day of it. We have great dedicated schools! We are also finishing up a Multi Purpose Center along with the new Sports center at the High School. Think about it.
Thanks

oh and we are just 35 miles north of Odessa and approx. 45 miles north of Midland!

[starfields]

Here are two threads with information on Midland, Abilene, San Angelo:

The Median Household Incomes http://www.city-data.com/forum/texas...d-incomes.html thread
and page 7 [where my comments begin] of the [closed by moderator] Midland Odessa thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/texas...-please-7.html

I agree that the Midland International Airport is something to enter into your relocation calculus--if you don't have reservations about flying. Just listen: http://www.texasarchitect.org/shapeo...bb061a9104f20b

Why does Midland have a higher percentage of college graduates than many similarly sized cities which have universities???

[zenlady]

I highly recomend Abilene! its great in every way! Has more than one phone company,more one everything.. Its weather is usually mild and sunny in the winter. Its the greatest place I ever lived.It has been covered pretty well already here how wonderful the place is.
I am now living in Texarkana area, and it has higher taxs and only one phone company, one choice for dialup internet and thats all that is offered in the country parts. Its dry here(alhohol wise )and loses most of its tax money to other places so its up to the home and land owners to cover the tax money here.

The people are nice here but they are nice in Abilene too.Their is more trees and rain here in Texarkana,which makes it a beautiful green place with small hills..

[rickycity]

I grew up in West Texas. Lived in Snyder, Odessa, on a farm outside Stanton, and ended up in San Antonio during college and thereafter. You may want to check out San Angelo. It is more scenic than the towns you mentioned and there is an air base there for support/double dipping. San Angelo doesn't have the high humidity we have in San Antonio, but there is more a sense of the seasons. Don't have a feeling of the for the quality of the schools.
The traffic is nothing and the people are the friendliest.
Good Luck,
rickycity