3 ms·

Gee. Mediocre COVID response. Mediocre treatment of women. Mediocre treatment of non-white folks. Mediocre view of the democratic process. Hot as blazes.

Gee. Mediocre COVID response. Mediocre treatment of women. Mediocre treatment of non-white folks. Mediocre view of the democratic process. Hot as blazes. Mediocre electrical grid. Some risk of catastrophic weather events. Some people might find these as undesirable aspects of living in Texas.

ctvo 5y ago
The desirable aspects: 0 state income tax. Low housing cost, and low cost of living in general. Culturally diverse (Asians, Hispanics), with large urban centers (Dallas, Houston, Austin). To each their own.
- dmitriy_ko 5y ago
  0 state income tax, but property taxes are 3% vs 1% or so in California.
  - bin_bash 5y ago
    Average property tax in Texas is 1.69%. It seems in my area the nice areas are around 2%. I'm not sure where you're getting 3% from. Also, our house in TX is almost half the price of our house in CA (and much nicer), so even though the rate is double the actual tax amount is the same.
    - dmitriy_ko 5y ago
      I was looking at Austin on Zillow and property taxes were really high, maybe it's just the areas I looked at.
      - mud_dauber 5y ago
        NW Austin resident checking in. 1500 sq ft house = $7700 property taxes (2020). Yeeesh.
- jleyank 5y ago
  Socal, at least, covers the cultural diversity and large urban as specified. Gobs of people and a mixture containing both Asians and Hispanics along with other things. Fully agree on the $$ issue.
  - ctvo 5y ago
    Biggest difference from socal is it's way too hot for the homeless. I don't live in Texas currently, and don't plan on ever returning, but did live in Austin for a few years. I can see the appeal.
    - igetspam 5y ago
      It's been near or above 100F s lot this summer and we're making it nearly impossible to br homeless here. Makes sense to though. When low earners are losing jobs in retail and service industries and people from CA are driving up housing prices, forcing poor people to live in tents, making this place even less hospitable is the only neighborly thing to do.
- 0x000000001 5y ago
  New Mexico only has 4.9% and all the rest
  - ianai 5y ago
    Better food, too. But shh.
- igetspam 5y ago
  I'm selling a 3400 sqft house for $750k, just outside Austin. My property taxes are insane and I have to fight every year to not let the county reassess my home value the maximum legal amount. I've seen a black person in my neighborhood enough times to know he's a resident and there are two Indian families but the place white as hell. Crime is going up, we're nationally ranked near or at the top for DWI (except during the first half of COVID, where we traded in for spousal abuse... also drunk, probably). Every 21+ can now open carry, as long as they have a pulse and no recent violent convictions. The power grid is constantly teetering on the edge of collapse (generator sales are way up this year though, so that's cool). There are so many new subdivisions going up that we can't build enough schools fast enough to fit all the kids and the roads have slowed to a crawl. The state government seems to actively be trying to kill people, while disenfranchising minorities and stripping rights from women, while effectively turning every slack jawed bubba into a part time bounty hunter. To each their own. Personally, I'm giving TX the finger and taking my cash elsewhere. Abbot can roll of a cliff, for all I care.
bin_bash 5y ago
I just moved to Texas from California where there is: horrific levels of crime, homelessness, and drug use in my area, outrageous cost-of-living, bad public schools, bad housing, and people are generally just incredibly unfriendly to each other. I also worry the lack of water and annual fires will tank the biggest industry in the state (agriculture), and who is going to pick up the tab? Texas has problems, but they're not as bad for me. Personally it's the lack of nature that's been the worst drawback so far. Most of them can be mitigated by purchasing a nice house with good A/C and a standby generator—which is affordable.
- fmakunbound 5y ago
  > standby generator-which is adorable From Austin here. It’s about $16k for a natural gas, 22kW (hey gotta run that decent, Texas sized a/c, right?) generator. That’s all up, installed with all the permits for electric and gas and city included and it will take about 4 months to install. PS: I’d rather live in San Diego any day
  - bin_bash 5y ago
    Compared to my cost of living in the bay that's absolutely pennies. And good luck getting anything installed permits or otherwise because finding contractors (especially decent ones) is nearly impossible without a healthy population of tradesmen. I was also affected by blackouts in CA so it wasn't like I had power there either. Only difference is the weather is very livable without HVAC.
    - fmakunbound 5y ago
      Yeah some famous tv guy in LA waited years to get his solar panels installed. I feel like I’d be earning way more in California for the crap I do though.
      - bsagdiyev 5y ago
        You can work remote, I left San Diego in January but kept my CA level pay while moving to a significantly lower CoL area. Also San Diego is nice, but damn has traffic gotten horrible in the last 20 years. And the house prices. Don’t even get me started.
HelixEndeavor 5y ago
Our COVID response has been fantastic, no curb-stomping of human rights. What kind of mediocre treatment of women? Banning the murder of babies? No idea what you mean by the treatment of non-white folks, everyone here is pretty friendly. Voter ID is a basic requirement for any functional democratic system, so honestly we respect the process more than many states. Our electrical grid works just fine, the February storm was a once in a lifetime event, and most of the issues were with things like power lines simply never having been built with prolonged sub-zero degree conditions in mind - which, given your comment about it being "hot as blazes" is a pretty reasonable assumption to make when constructing the grid.

ctvo 5y ago

The desirable aspects: 0 state income tax. Low housing cost, and low cost of living in general. Culturally diverse (Asians, Hispanics), with large urban centers (Dallas, Houston, Austin). To each their own.

dmitriy_ko 5y ago
0 state income tax, but property taxes are 3% vs 1% or so in California.
- bin_bash 5y ago
  Average property tax in Texas is 1.69%. It seems in my area the nice areas are around 2%. I'm not sure where you're getting 3% from. Also, our house in TX is almost half the price of our house in CA (and much nicer), so even though the rate is double the actual tax amount is the same.
  - dmitriy_ko 5y ago
    I was looking at Austin on Zillow and property taxes were really high, maybe it's just the areas I looked at.
    - mud_dauber 5y ago
      NW Austin resident checking in. 1500 sq ft house = $7700 property taxes (2020). Yeeesh.
jleyank 5y ago
Socal, at least, covers the cultural diversity and large urban as specified. Gobs of people and a mixture containing both Asians and Hispanics along with other things. Fully agree on the $$ issue.
- ctvo 5y ago
  Biggest difference from socal is it's way too hot for the homeless. I don't live in Texas currently, and don't plan on ever returning, but did live in Austin for a few years. I can see the appeal.
  - igetspam 5y ago
    It's been near or above 100F s lot this summer and we're making it nearly impossible to br homeless here. Makes sense to though. When low earners are losing jobs in retail and service industries and people from CA are driving up housing prices, forcing poor people to live in tents, making this place even less hospitable is the only neighborly thing to do.
0x000000001 5y ago
New Mexico only has 4.9% and all the rest
- ianai 5y ago
  Better food, too. But shh.
igetspam 5y ago
I'm selling a 3400 sqft house for $750k, just outside Austin. My property taxes are insane and I have to fight every year to not let the county reassess my home value the maximum legal amount. I've seen a black person in my neighborhood enough times to know he's a resident and there are two Indian families but the place white as hell. Crime is going up, we're nationally ranked near or at the top for DWI (except during the first half of COVID, where we traded in for spousal abuse... also drunk, probably). Every 21+ can now open carry, as long as they have a pulse and no recent violent convictions. The power grid is constantly teetering on the edge of collapse (generator sales are way up this year though, so that's cool). There are so many new subdivisions going up that we can't build enough schools fast enough to fit all the kids and the roads have slowed to a crawl. The state government seems to actively be trying to kill people, while disenfranchising minorities and stripping rights from women, while effectively turning every slack jawed bubba into a part time bounty hunter. To each their own. Personally, I'm giving TX the finger and taking my cash elsewhere. Abbot can roll of a cliff, for all I care.

bin_bash 5y ago

I just moved to Texas from California where there is: horrific levels of crime, homelessness, and drug use in my area, outrageous cost-of-living, bad public schools, bad housing, and people are generally just incredibly unfriendly to each other. I also worry the lack of water and annual fires will tank the biggest industry in the state (agriculture), and who is going to pick up the tab? Texas has problems, but they're not as bad for me. Personally it's the lack of nature that's been the worst drawback so far. Most of them can be mitigated by purchasing a nice house with good A/C and a standby generator—which is affordable.

fmakunbound 5y ago
> standby generator-which is adorable From Austin here. It’s about $16k for a natural gas, 22kW (hey gotta run that decent, Texas sized a/c, right?) generator. That’s all up, installed with all the permits for electric and gas and city included and it will take about 4 months to install. PS: I’d rather live in San Diego any day
- bin_bash 5y ago
  Compared to my cost of living in the bay that's absolutely pennies. And good luck getting anything installed permits or otherwise because finding contractors (especially decent ones) is nearly impossible without a healthy population of tradesmen. I was also affected by blackouts in CA so it wasn't like I had power there either. Only difference is the weather is very livable without HVAC.
  - fmakunbound 5y ago
    Yeah some famous tv guy in LA waited years to get his solar panels installed. I feel like I’d be earning way more in California for the crap I do though.
    - bsagdiyev 5y ago
      You can work remote, I left San Diego in January but kept my CA level pay while moving to a significantly lower CoL area. Also San Diego is nice, but damn has traffic gotten horrible in the last 20 years. And the house prices. Don’t even get me started.

HelixEndeavor 5y ago

Our COVID response has been fantastic, no curb-stomping of human rights. What kind of mediocre treatment of women? Banning the murder of babies? No idea what you mean by the treatment of non-white folks, everyone here is pretty friendly. Voter ID is a basic requirement for any functional democratic system, so honestly we respect the process more than many states. Our electrical grid works just fine, the February storm was a once in a lifetime event, and most of the issues were with things like power lines simply never having been built with prolonged sub-zero degree conditions in mind - which, given your comment about it being "hot as blazes" is a pretty reasonable assumption to make when constructing the grid.