relocating from CA to TX (Houston, Dallas: townhome, find a job, buying)

[talex86]

Hello everyone,

I apologize if this type of question has been covered in depth already—I think I’ve found a lot of my answers browsing around but now I am looking a little deeper.

I am looking to relocate from California, and Texas is number one on my list. I currently live in Tracy, CA (central valley) and commute to the SF bay area for work. I grew up here and ended up buying a townhome here when I got out of the military, and it is just that time to move on. I wouldn’t mind moving into the bay area itself, but I’ve pretty much been priced out. I have some decent equity in my house and work in the concrete ready mix industry, so anywhere with development could work for a future place to live. The company I am at right now is a business unit of US Concrete, which has additional business units in the Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, which is what made Texas kind of a logical choice.

A little about me—30 year old single male with a dog, no other ties. The only things really important to me are the following:

-Good hiking/trails/parks to take my dog.
-Lakes/bodies of water
-Decent nightlight/bars/food
-Sports-baseball (major or minor don’t care), football, college football
-I compete in powerlifting/crossfit so a decent amount of gyms
-Wouldn’t mind if there were single people my age-ish.
-A commute of 1 hour or less to work in each direction would be great, but I am used to 1.5-2 hours each way so I could deal with more.

I don’t really care about the politics of wherever I live--I know each of the above areas are different from one another. I got my bachelors in that and haven’t cared to pay attention or let politics affect me since. My property taxes are also insane, so I am used to that kind of crap as well.

So I am basically looking to see if any of the above cities/metro areas fit the bill. Fire away with any info or questions. Thanks!!

[ChristieP]

Houston and DFW both have pro football teams and D1 college teams, along with MLB and minor league baseball teams. The other cities in Texas only have minor league or college teams.

Be sure and find a job before you move. Both DFW and Houston are HUGE and have nice areas to live all over the place. There's no reason to make a long commute here.

[Sunderpig2]

You have a mix of urban and more remote (lakes, hiking, etc) preferences. You might look at each of those towns (Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio) and what each has (urban-wise) and what is nearby (nature-wise).

Austin is crammed and congested, but has access to the Hill Country. SA is more spread out, and it is also near the Hill Country. Houston is near the coast, so more bay and coastal water sports (but less in the way of lakes). Dallas doesn't have the coast, but it is closer to more lakes than the other cities. Since you've put up with extensive commutes, it doesn't sound like that will be a major factor any more, and you should have lots of options.

After lots of research, as well as looking at maps, you might want to sum up each city/region - pros and cons - and start narrowing down which is the best overall.