Georgia(Atlanta) vs. Texas(DFW, Houston, San Antonio, etc) houses (high crime, home builders)
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Georgia(Atlanta) vs. Texas(DFW, Houston, San Antonio, etc) houses.
I looked at every state that had active contractors/home builders and Texas was the cheapest of all with Georgia close behind. I could not belive how expensive some of the states were(besides the obvious CA) to the point prices exceeded north Florida or even all of Florida! I believe NJ, VA, MD, DE are four examples. In fact all the states on the east coast arent cheap. NC costs about as much as north Florida which makes me wonder why move all the way to NC instead of just relocate to the northern part of FL? Perhaps higher paying jobs in NC? Georgia costs less than half of what south Florida costs and is still a fair bit cheaper than north Florida. Texas is even cheaper than Georgia and about 2.5x cheaper than south Florida! Momof2DFW did warn me to watch out for certain cheap areas, thanks for that advice.
Property taxes in TX is like 3.3% vs. near 2% in GA but TX has no state income tax. GA has a better climate and I wouldnt have to waste so much air condition. TX is very strict on driving, speed 2mph over the limit and pay a big fine! Atlanta does have very high crime comparable to south Florida, can I buy in a suburb of Atlanta where crime is far less and drive a few miles to Atlanta to shop? Oh the other pro about GA is you can have a basement!
Texas is cheaper though. Is GA really better than Texas? I realize this is more of an opinion than fact.
For the same price, ill take GA because of lower property taxes and better climate. But GA costs a little more.
My advice is to look at the property taxes in the particular areas that you are looking at. There is a wide discrepancy between the different ISD (Independent School District) property tax rates in TX. When I lived in TX I paid ~$3200/yr on a house valued at $80K. Seems pretty high to me!
I'd say Texas just for the fact that you have much more to do than you would in Georgia. Atlanta is nice but it's also fairly pricey. I love Texas and I think you should seriously consider Dallas/Ft. Worth or the surrounding suburbs. Just my $0.02 though...
Even though I am a WA state native, I love the Atlanta area - It is pretty big and depending on where you live vs work, you may have quite a commute. But I absolutely loved it down there and was heart broken when my husband's job took us away. I was amazed at how cheap it is in Atlanta vs. Washington State. The further from downtown, the cheaper it gets to live. If you move down there, I would look into living in Decatur or Midtown if you are interested in living in-city life. If you want suburbs at a reasonable price, stay to the NE of Atlanta (Smyrna, Marietta, Kennesaw - even as far as Canton or Acworth if you want cheap). While you can always go SE or E toward Stone Mountain, there seems to be less crime up the NE. The highest crime areas are to the S of Atlanta.
Also, if you are sensitive to humidity, look for places that do not have as many trees / creeks in the area. The last place we lived - Kennesaw - was the least humid that I had lived - but since I worked in Decatur (lots of trees/creeks so very humid), it took me close to 1.5 hours to commute one-way, so unless you will be going against traffic - live close to where you work if you don't want to spend your life in a car. But the economy is great there and since it is growing so fast and it is business friendly, you won't have any trouble finding work.
It is a great city for things to do - art, clubs, social, restaurants, etc.... If you like the outdoors, its pretty hard to get anywhere where you aren't surrounded by tons of people - but that's like it pretty much is all over the East coast. It is also a beautiful city with lots of lushness. Its within a days driving distance to the coast of Georgia and S. Carolina, the mountains of Tennessee and the gulf coast of Florida. I miss Atlanta and would move back there in a heart beat if I could. Good luck with the decision!!!
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