Making a move from WI to Texas possibly..?? (Houston, Dallas: spring break, houses)

[klechner]

O.K, I think I have posted about every where,so if you've read this before I apologize.

I live in Southern WI. about 1/2 hour south of Madison. My husband was working for General Motors,but you all know how that went.He is an Army Medic in the reserves and also has his degree in Police Science.He wants us to consider moving to either Austin,New Orleans LA,or Dallas - Fort Worth area to pursue a job on the police force. I am working as a Realtor and since the close of the plant the market is even worse then national records.So,it's scary with two girls ages 7 & 10 and currently living next door to your folks in the community you have grown up in and considering moving across country.

The big quistions I have are..

Will I get a home better or at least comparible to what we have now? We live on almost 2 acres with 2100 sq ft. however,that includes the finished basement.4 bdrms,4 btms..I hope to sell for 225,000.

What are the schools like for our girls coming from a small community?

I am phobic of spiders!!! We have spiders here,don't get me wrong..but deadly ones tend to freak me out!! Torantulas??? And brown flesh eating recluse??

I am a people person,how are the folks??????

I really would love to visit each city,however,I don't think we can really afford that.

Help!! Thanks!!

[FarNorthDallas]

Well, you won't find basements in any of those cities. Finding houses on 2 acres lot can be a challenge. We line our houses up with 10 feet in between each one. You can find a house with some space, but you will pay for it unless you go way way out to a rural area.

Dallas PD was paying a $10,000 bonus, but I don't know if they still are. They are getting lots and lots of interest, lots of recruits now. They used to beg people to join, but not anymore.

Austin is more expensive overall than Dallas. I don't know much about New Orleans, but I think that would pretty much be a whole different world. Jobs are harder to find in Austin. Lots of peeps want to live there.

The are a lot of good public schools here. You got to really do your research though, because there are some crummy schools, too. We have independent school districts (ISD) here and there are about 100 in the DFW area. School district boundaries are not related to city boundaries.

I would hesitate to move away from family and all you know unless you just have no choice.

I haven't seen a spider in ages. Texans are nice people for the most part. You can visit Dallas and Austin in the same trip. They are about 4 hours apart. Drive down for Spring Break and check it out.

[WillysB]

You don't really have to land in a big city like Austin or DFW but those big cities have plenty of highways heading out of town for commuters living in smaller towns and those smaller towns also have law enforcement. And plenty of those small towns are experiencing growth. You just have to do a lot of homework to find one. I was driving near Ft. Hood today and saw a sign for a 'horse ranch' or farm or some sort for people needing a place to keep a horse and ride from time to time. Now, this is in a somewhat country setting but being near Ft. Hood, the largest active army post in the country, is near well over a hundred thousand people.

So, you can find your acreage and an area with employment.

Homes here don't have basements unless you find one where an owner just wanted to dig and decided to call it a basement. Northerners typically calls homes in Texas as ranch style... flat and spead out.

You will find spiders but not many tarantulus or scorpions, depending on location. Houston may have some brown recluse spiders but there aren't many people getting bit, so it really amounts to home maintenance.

You should send off for the Texas Travel Guide to see if it can help you find an area of interest. The guide is FREE ! ! ! Get it now.

[loves2read]

frankly from what I have read/see about New Orleans police that would be a mistake--
I know of cases where tourists were robbed by police in NO--

there are brown recluse spiders in TX--you can find them in city houses and country houses ALL over--not just in Houston--you can spray but they are pretty resiliant so you have to be careful especially when working outside in dark or woody/planted areas like sheds, gardens, attics

tarantulas are pretty few and far between unless you are in areas of south and west TX--they are very shy and if they have their choice won't come near people
same with snakes--
but last Saturday night we heard a coyote howling in the park behind our house in a very built-up suburban area--so go figure...my husband plays golf at Bear Creek which is at the DFW airport and he has seen bobcats on more than one occasion...

you need to check out some MLS sites and see what houses in your price range look like--there is tremendous variety in DFW metroplex for a 200K house--it all depends on factors like where you work and your commute time, how large a lot you HAVE to have, if you want a particular school district because school districts in TX are done much differently than in other states

do some searches on the TX forum and the different major cities for general terms like
police jobs, school districts, basements, weather, spiders--all questions people have asked before

I am going to PM you an MLS site that has good info for DFW area--especially about the schools for the listing
our state ratings are for TAKS scores--Exemplary is #1, then Recognized, then Acceptable, then Unacceptable---
the smaller the school the easier it is to get Exemplary--so more elementary schools have that rating--as schools grow and gather more diverse student population, the best rating is almost impossible to obtain -- even if there are plenty of good teachers/programs just because of the dilution effect--just as more students take the SAT tests, the overall average score drops...
taxes are also more expensive because we pay heavy school tax--vs income tax (if your state has one)

[catfucious]

We also have Black Widows and massive mesquitos, plus many unidentified freakish bugs and roach varieties. Other than that, I love living here, but the market is tightening for jobs.

[Gettingaway]

I recently moved here from Wisconsin and am very excited about my move. I don't no about the market tightening for jobs. My husband had 6 interviews in four days in his field. I had 1 interview and only applied to a few jobs and got hired. We are in the business field, so I don't know about other fields. It was the best choice I have made so far.