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Old 04-14-2016, 03:22 PM
 
Location: Denver, Colorado U.S.A.
14,164 posts, read 27,119,475 times
Reputation: 10428

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Quote:
Originally Posted by kmimi View Post
I think you are correct – we are leaning more towards Texas but it is just so close! Our home has appreciated greatly – about 70% . This all started when we were talking about taking the money and applying it to a lower-priced home on the outskirts DFW. We are finding homes with a small chunk of property- new- 30 min commute- for $180-220k. We are finding that the property tax in Texas is actually less than our cost of Colorado state taxes. We live up near Fort Collins and I actually work in Wyoming where the weather is worse but they never cancel school! So I have to make the scary trip by myself because the district is too foolish to cancel school (all it will take us one law suit...). Some people like my husband can just call in on bad weather days and other folks like my parents are retired and don't have that luxury ! When i first mived here we went a month where it wasn't above freezing. I think my parents are going to stay here… It is a great place for retirees! But when my husband and I are working in the winter months and we leave each morning in the dark and come home in the dark it makes me long for living down south. Arizona was the best! No daylight savings time! It is just so hard to leave here because it is beautiful and we got in before the bo it is just so hard to leave here because it is beautiful and we got in before the boom... Trying to figure out my priorities! My husband's job offers on the table but won't be there forever so we are on crunch time to make a decision. I need to let my school now about my intention for next year by next Monday!!!! Ahhh!

Thanks for your input everybody! Keep it coming!
Moving to Texas and winning the "equity lotto" is a pretty big plus We did that by moving to Denver from L.A. 11 years ago.
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Old 04-14-2016, 03:46 PM
 
Location: Houston
204 posts, read 200,278 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kmimi View Post
! But when my husband and I are working in the winter months and we leave each morning in the dark and come home in the dark it makes me long for living down south. Arizona was the best! No daylight savings time!
I don't get this. I just moved here from Houston and all winter I left for work in the dark and came home in the dark. I'm not sure how moving Dallas will make that big of a change.

Quote:
Originally Posted by denverian View Post
Dallas really isn't a gardener's dream. You still get winter (a shorter version), and honestly, the summers are just brutal. I lived in San Antonio for a couple years and at least there, the winters were rather pleasant, and you could garden in the winter. But holy sauna in the summer!! It just wasn't ever pleasant to be outdoors for about 7 months straight.

Texas is cheaper, but I couldn't take the "Texas Pride" (culture) that maybe you can tolerate. Nor could I take the politics there. Or the ugly landscape (flat).
You're not kidding about the brutal heat and the Texas pride. I can put more clothes on to stay warm, but I can only remove so much to try to stay cool. Every weekend during the summer was the same for me. I jump off the couch to go outdoors (camping, hiking, riding, whatever), but opening the front door felt like I had just opened a blast furnace...hmm let's just see what's on TV instead. But that's me; I can't handle the heat. I've lived in Indiana and Wisconsin, so snow isn't new to me.

And then there's that Texas pride. I had friends that had never even left Texas because they thought that it was the greatest place and there was no reason to ever leave. Now I'll be honest and say that I'm sure much of my disdain for that pride was because I never liked living there. Traffic was horrid, people just threw their trash out of the car while driving (no pride there), and I saw some of the worst driving habits there. Dallas seems to be under perpetual road construction too. Houston just never felt like home to me. I'm too new to Colorado to really give a comparison though.
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Old 04-14-2016, 04:06 PM
 
Location: Denver, Colorado U.S.A.
14,164 posts, read 27,119,475 times
Reputation: 10428
Quote:
Originally Posted by IndyRC View Post
I don't get this. I just moved here from Houston and all winter I left for work in the dark and came home in the dark. I'm not sure how moving Dallas will make that big of a change.



You're not kidding about the brutal heat and the Texas pride. I can put more clothes on to stay warm, but I can only remove so much to try to stay cool. Every weekend during the summer was the same for me. I jump off the couch to go outdoors (camping, hiking, riding, whatever), but opening the front door felt like I had just opened a blast furnace...hmm let's just see what's on TV instead. But that's me; I can't handle the heat. I've lived in Indiana and Wisconsin, so snow isn't new to me.

And then there's that Texas pride. I had friends that had never even left Texas because they thought that it was the greatest place and there was no reason to ever leave. Now I'll be honest and say that I'm sure much of my disdain for that pride was because I never liked living there. Traffic was horrid, people just threw their trash out of the car while driving (no pride there), and I saw some of the worst driving habits there. Dallas seems to be under perpetual road construction too. Houston just never felt like home to me. I'm too new to Colorado to really give a comparison though.
I think you have to be born and raised (brainwashed) in Texas to understand the Texas Pride thing. To an outsider, I was like, huh?? Nothing special going on here! And the southern accents worked my nerves.

The bigger Texas cities seemed rather trashy to me. They look the same, with the freeway loops and those roads alongside them filled with ugly businesses and tons of ugly billboards. San Antonio is mostly an ugly city. But I'll give credit to the TexMex restaurants.
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Old 04-14-2016, 04:19 PM
 
Location: Aurora, CO
8,595 posts, read 14,778,113 times
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I personally wouldn't make that move again. Didn't care for the Texas braggadocio, the traffic, the awful humid climate, the (lack of) scenery, or the absolutely screwball politics at the state level.

Living in Dallas gave me an appreciation for what I had here. When we moved back I resolved to take advantage of the outdoors. I'd guess I've easily logged more time outdoors in the last 18 months than I did the entire 12 years we lived in the Metroplex.

That being said I totally get where the OP is coming from. Family is a strong pull. If I had family in Texas leaving would probably have been more difficult.
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Old 04-15-2016, 08:44 AM
 
Location: Highlands Ranch, CO
556 posts, read 758,663 times
Reputation: 848
Short answer is this:

Dallas sucks. It, and Houston, are on the top 5 most miserable large cities to be in in the US I feel. If you want to live in Texas, go to San Antonio or Austin. Those are much better and they come with all of the pluses of being a Texas that you long for.

So my advice, since you seem to be all in for Texas, is have your husband look for something in Austin or SA and go for that. By the time you find something, your house will appreciate even more.
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Old 04-15-2016, 11:26 AM
 
14,376 posts, read 18,286,917 times
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I'm not a particularly well-traveled person, but at 15 I took a drive with a friend's family through Texas and New Mexico. While I loved New Mexico, I remember finding nothing particularly special about Texas short of the Alamo. And we drove across a good chunk of the state. I grew up in New Jersey in a pretty tight radius (except for college), and I moved to Colorado at 34.

Upstate NY, PA, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois - I saw the beauty in all of those states. But Texas was one of the few travel experiences where I couldn't see myself living ever. Some great scenery, but overall I found it kind of depressing and boring, and I'm seriously someone who can find almost anything interesting. Even Florida and Kansas were higher on my list.
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Old 04-15-2016, 11:31 AM
 
1,158 posts, read 950,958 times
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Not sure where in DFW you are finding new construction with a chunk of property for 180-220k??? DFW has gone absolutely nuts and has grown tremedously in the last 10 years. Unless you are living in the sticks or southern Oklahoma you are not going to get a new house and acreage in that price range with a reasonable commute or good schools. People are moving here in droves for jobs from California, Chicago, the east coast and driving up the cost of real estate. There is limited inventory and bidding wars on houses under 200k are very common. Some people are getting 20 offers the day they list with offers significantly over asking. There is a shortage of new construction. Infrastructure/roads have not kept pace with the huge population growth. Check out the Dallas boards, it's not as cheap to live in DFW as people think. 1.8 million people have moved to Texas between 2010 to 2014. The problem with living on the outskirts is the traffic and toll roads. 10 years ago I drove from far North Fort Worth/Keller to LBJ and Webb Chapel daily for work. It was a three hour round trip then. When it rained add another hour. Don't forget the huge utility bills too for summer (May though September.) Property tax notices just went out and lots of people are freaking out how much their property values and taxes have increased.

Do lots of research, visit and make sure the reality of DFWmatches up to your expectations.

I've lived in both Colorado (Evergreen and Denver) and Texas (Austin and DFW). Hands down Colorado for me.
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Old 04-15-2016, 01:10 PM
 
Location: Colorado Springs
3,959 posts, read 4,343,844 times
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With the OPs heritage and family being from Texas, a transition back will not be difficult compared to some of us who may move there from someplace else. If the see winter in Colorado simply as skiing (which they don't do) and no gardening opportunities, half the year here is practically worthless to them.

I had family in Dallas and further up north in the Texoma area. I loved to visit them, but never wanted to live there. Growing up in CO, the heat was heavy by comparison, but my sinuses loved it. And lets not forget the bugs, OMG the freakin' bugs. Any variety of garden spiders as big as your hand living in any shadowed area, Black Widows as large as my thumb, a variety of poisonous snakes and oversized every day creepy crawlies everywhere. But, I have to admit it was cool to load up the boat, drive 30 minutes and put it in a lake where we weren't fighting for space on the water with 500 other boaters. Plants did grow with very little maintenance, but mowing was a constant chore.
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Old 04-15-2016, 02:44 PM
 
670 posts, read 1,167,128 times
Reputation: 1763
Quote:
Originally Posted by guyatwork37 View Post
If you want to live in Texas, go to San Antonio or Austin. Those are much better and they come with all of the pluses of being a Texas that you long for.
I disagree w/you about San Antonio. Not a fan. IMO it is a hell hole. I know this because unfortunately I travel there 6 times a year and have for several years. The traffic is horrendous, people drive like idiots and they are rude. (While I like Austin a lot, traffic is even worse there.)
Whenever I mention a trip there people say "oh, the River Walk is lovely." That's all they know about San Antonio. Sorry, but it's not that lovely when people urinate off the bridges and that's how it smells. The people I know who live there rarely if ever go there unless they are taking a visitor who just has to see it.

The best thing about Texas is H.E.B.

To the OP, best of luck to you whatever you decide!
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Old 04-15-2016, 03:48 PM
 
Location: Denver, Colorado U.S.A.
14,164 posts, read 27,119,475 times
Reputation: 10428
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hipchik View Post
I disagree w/you about San Antonio. Not a fan. IMO it is a hell hole. I know this because unfortunately I travel there 6 times a year and have for several years. The traffic is horrendous, people drive like idiots and they are rude. (While I like Austin a lot, traffic is even worse there.)
Whenever I mention a trip there people say "oh, the River Walk is lovely." That's all they know about San Antonio. Sorry, but it's not that lovely when people urinate off the bridges and that's how it smells. The people I know who live there rarely if ever go there unless they are taking a visitor who just has to see it.

The best thing about Texas is H.E.B.

To the OP, best of luck to you whatever you decide!
I lived in San Antonio for a couple years. Your assessment is spot on! I always hear how nice the River Walk is. But did these people travel around the other 99% of the metro area and see what a dump it is? Well, there is Alamo Heights, but mostly the metro area is rather blah.
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