Where in Texas..... (El Paso, Abilene, San Angelo: for sale, real estate, chapel)

[RamblinRoseRanch]

can I find the answer to my wishlist?

Family and horse friendly area, wide open spaces

low taxes and property prices, I'd like at least 40 acres with a house.... under 200,000, hopefully.

low humidity and winter temps no lower than the 30s

I'd really prefer not to have to feed hay all year round, so grazing property would be perfect.

I'm a photographer and my husband is the CEO of a cellular company, if that helps.
Estimated moving date in a three to five year timeframe.
So c'mon, Texas, tell me why we should be your new neighbors :-)

[KewGee]

40 acres with a house for under $200,00 and the weather for which you ask? I haven't a clue.

[RSTX]

If you can live with slightly colder weather on a sporadic basis, then the western part of Texas around San Angelo sounds like it might fit. It will get below 30*F in the winter. Not every night, and it may be in the 50's for a low, but it will get cold. If you want to be above 30* year round then deep south TX is your only choice, and even then the occasional freeze will occur.

For what you want I would strongly suggest the area around San Angelo. Just throw on an extra layer in the am and you'll be fine.

[NOTAM]

Hamilton, Brownwood, Coleman, San Saba, Goldwaithe, San Angelo.....start there

[doss1]

yea Belle has it right. Hurry, as those prices are increasing, though.

[BillRadio]

I see you've posted the same request in several state forums. You might want to schedule a vacation across these states to see which ones interest you. Visit random towns and quiz the realtors. You might like to look at Census bureau statistics for prices. You need to narrow down your search.

I had a couple of neighbors who moved from Colorado to Tennessee. They were tired of the high prices, too many people, and cold weather!

[RamblinRoseRanch]

Belle & Nick, Thanks for the suggestions .

Bill,

Yep. Unfortunately Mo and Ar are too humid, Wyoming may be too rough, water-wise.

The plan is to gather as much *professional* knowledge and *real-people* knowledge and narrow down the list of places. We both work six days a week so we'll have to try to tie the trips to check out areas close together.

I did get an info packet from Abilene yesterday. I haven't had a lot of time to look through it, although I did note that the home prices seem much more reasonable than here.

Sounds like your friends had a lot of the same reasons that we do. How funny they ran TO what we are running from.

We attended a memorial service Sunday (and then fed and turned his horses out afterwards ) that is literally five minutes away, in a little chapel on his ranch. There were SIX farms, all in excess of 25 acres for sale between that place and ours. This was on a back road too. Can you say 'subdivision'? Nothing is priced for Farmer Joe; it's all geared towards MR. Joe, the real estate developer.

When will people realize that they're not making any more land? When all our food is grown in labs and it's illegal for the average person to own livestock?

[KewGee]

Neither Abilene nor San Angelo have a great comfort index level when it comes to humidity. Texas is not UN-humid unless you go way out west like El Paso or Marfa/Alpine or into the Panhandle, preferably as far north as possible. Of course, it's very hot in these places but definitely not terribly humid as other parts of Texas.

[doss1]

Are you looking to drive from your home to your job? Or, is this all home-based?

Lots of people who are home-based are moving to extremely small towns like Marfa and San Saba to get away from the rat race. It did not help that the New York Times recently spot lighted these towns a few months ago.

Here's one such town: Home of San Saba Texas (http://www.sansabatexas.com/index.php?option=com_expose&Itemid=55 - broken link)

[lessfilling]

You may need to consider anything toward San Angelo and westward. You just can't escape temps in the 30's in too many places.