Move to Arizona or Texas from Chicago?!

[gokctx]

As someone who lived in Texas (Dallas) for the past 12 years I would recommend stay clear of Texas (in particular Dallas):

1) Summers are very hot and humid, cannot really enjoy the outdoors
2) Winters can get cold, so if you want really want mild winters AZ better choice
3) At least for Dallas, urban sprawl and traffic congestion (cannot speak for AZ in regards to this)
4) Ugly cities and landscapes. In Dallas the saying was flat brown and ugly which is very true in summer time.
5) Very conservative insular mind-set (yes this is a generalization but there is definetly truth to this)
6) Lacks character (especially compared to Chicago)

About the only thing going for TX imho is cheap housing and pro-business environment (that is a double edged sword-- TX does not seem to mind sacrificing quality of life (i.e. pollution, sprawl, congetion etc.) for attracting business.

Sorry to be so negative on TX but want to keep you from making same mistake I did. Can't offer u much advice on AZ. Personally I do not have any desire to move there. My advice, visit both places for a week in August. If do decide on TX I would consider Austin. Of all the cities in TX Austin is probably the best of the bunch.