NWR: Wanting to move out of California, thinking Texas or Colorado! Anyone from there??

I moved from San Diego (born and raised for 23 years!) To Houston TX. I miss Cali so much!!! But its very true that the difficulties living there can stop it from being enjoyable.

What areas of work are you guys looking for jobs? That would be my starting point.

Texas, for me, has been good. I miss the weather and my family, but overall it's a good place to be!

I've been to Colorado and never been to Texas, but visiting Colorado..I loved it! If I ever move anywhere it's Colorado. Such a beautiful state!

I'm from Colorado! Message me if you want info, but it is a great place to live...if you're okay with snow (and driving in it).

I loved it then after 18 years of it I was sick of snow and tired of being cold all winter long and shoveling heavy snow and driving so carefully then still sliding on ice. I just had to drive to school too, I wouldn't want to think about driving to work every day with maybe a longer commute.

BUT other than the snow, it is really a lovely place. You get over 300 days of sunshine and you can do so many things, it's great for whatever you want to do. It is a much cheaper place, good schools and stuff!

Anyway, message for more info :-)

ETA: We're using the florist you recommended, Mayra at the Singing Florist! She's so awesome! Thanks for the recommendation!

California is def expensive. I've never been to Colorado but I've heard areas there tend to be pretty spendy also.

I may be biased, but I moved to Texas a year and a half ago from Oregon (where I grew up) and I could not be happier. I LOVE Texas. And depending on where you go, the opportunities for jobs are great. My life is seriously fantastic. My job is so great (and I make almost twice what I did in Oregon.) FH has an awesome job too. The oilfield has so many job possibilities. I have nothing to complain about. And Texas is very affordable housing wise.

We live in Houston.

I live in Texas and it's a pretty great state, especially south east because there aren't really any tornados down here, and if they do appear, they are tiny. No earthquakes or volcanos. The only natural disaster we have is a hurricane and you get a looooong warning before that. The weather is nice, but there aren't really any seasons. It's just summer & winter, and our winters don't really get too cold.

Houston here! No state taxes! For $500k here, you can get a mansion. Love Houston!

I'm from Houston. Like @Melissa say there's only 2 seasons (mostly Summer) so be prepared for the heat lol. The job market is generally really great here, and I work in healthcare so being in a city with the largest medical center in the country is a great help. FH is from Colorado and he loved it there. I only like the "touristy, resort" areas lol.

Born and raised it Texas!!! I love it here from the Houston area. It is defiantly cheaper to live in Texas. I always watch love it or list it and those real estate shows on HGTV and I can not believe how much old tiny houses are!!! For 500,000 you could live on a WHOLE bunch of land with a nice house..or if that is not what you like you can live in a huge mansion! Everyone is very friendly in Texas!

I'm from Texas as well! DFW to be exact.. The cost of living here is so much more reasonable and like Jesse's Boo said, you can get a MANSION here for 500k! I say if you are thinking about it and can make it happen, then go for it! What have you got to lose?

Houston!

It never snows, it's hot in the summer (but really, that means you go jogging early in the morning and stay indoors as much as possible) and traffic can be crazy- but there's tons of stuff to do. Feel free to message me if you want.

My sister and her husband are both stationed in Texas and hate it! They said its super hot in the summer, the traffic is terrible and the area moves 'slow' (we're from fast paced NJ/NY area, sisters husband is from New Mexico).

Apparently the only thing they like is how inexpensive rent is, however next year they will be relocating to Oklahoma which apparently is wonderful? She never gave me reasons why though.

I lve in Houston texas. Only down side is this area is huge! It takes ahile to get anywhere and the traffic sucks. However i absolutely love it here!!!

Like the others said, you can get a freaking mansion here for $500k. A really nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath house you could easily get for under $200k. I don't agree with @Soon to be Mrs Lightfoot about "and a whole lotta land" tho unless you are looking well, well, well out of the city. We are looking for a chunk of land to build a house on within an hour and a half of the city, and for a nice chunk of about 20-30 acres, we are looking about $500k just for land. Lol. But! If you're looking for a nice house, in a nice subdivision, that's a totally different story and very affordable.

The traffic is a downfall, but depending on where you live in California, you may already be used to that. I moved from a tiny Oregon coast town of less than 15 thousand people to the 4th largest city in the country. Lol. I went from a 5 minute commute to a 45 minute commute, with tolls! The heat and humidity is definitely something to adjust to also, and I'm having a really hard time with that but when I look at all the positives and weigh them with the couple negatives (traffic and heat), I still say it's worth it. I absolutely love it here and my life since moving here.

The traffic in Houston is really subjective, too. For example, to get anywhere within the loop, you're good (mostly) to get there 15-20 minutes. If you live in the suburbs, like Clear Lake, Katy, or Sugarland, then you'll have a lot of traffic if you come into the city.

Just get familiar with traffic trends, different routes, and such.

Also, $500,000 will get you a large house the further you are from downtown. Downtown is pretty action-packed and young, but the suburbs are nice and quiet.

I'm in Texas (born and raised) and live in the DFW area. I love the area. There is always something to do. Yes, the traffic can blow at times but I love being able to experience so much without having to go far to do so. I, personally, have never been a big fan of Houston (except for it's proximity to the beach). Also, I've never lived anywhere outside of Texas so I can only speak to what I know. Texas is home...it's hot...but it's home.

Texas born and raised! I'm in Lubbock - which is in West Texas about 5 hours from Dallas and 8 hours from Houston. I love Texas! Have you decided which particular areas you'd like to consider?

Texan here. You can't really beat the housing prices here. You can get a lot of house for 200K, even less than that farther out into suburbs. I'm north of DFW, there are so many lovely little cities. I'm not a huge fan of Houston, but that's just me. Hill Country north and west of Austin is lovely. You can look into major growing cities like Frisco and McKinney north of dallas. My best friend from college lives outside Denver. I've always said if I ever had to live in a different state, it would be Colorado. It's just gorgeous, and I enjoy the cold. (A Texas summer takes some time getting used to!) But CO has a higher cost of living than Texas, especially in the houses. Look at the job markets for what you guys do. I don't know that I could move unless I had a solid job lead, I think the job market is slow and tough everywhere. But, in my opinion, you just can't beat housing prices here.

Its not Texas or Colorado...but Oregon is amazing. We moved from San Jose to Portland...couldn't be happier.

Haha. Idk if you've noticed, but most people that live in DFW area don't care for Houston and the other way around. Houstonians don't usually care for DFW. I can't say too much about Dallas, I've only been there once and we didn't do anything when we were there. It was just one of our pit stops for the night stops on our drive down from Oregon when we moved here to Houston. I'd like to go back up and visit DFW to see if I can actually form an opinion of it, but until that happens... I have nothing to say about DFW. FH's mom lived up there in McKinney for a little while and she really liked that area though.

Austin and the hill country are... gorgeous. I absolutely love it over there. Honestly, if it weren't for FH's family that brought him back to Houston and the fact that he leaves for weeks at a time for work and I have a really hard time meeting friends we'd probably move to Austin. But I'm extremely thankful for his family here in Houston when he's away so we are most likely staying here. I do like Houston too. It's nice that Austin is only about 3 hours away, so we take weekend trips sometimes. There is so much to do here and Houston is really close to a lot of other major cities that have lots of things to do too. Which I really, really love. Growing up on the Oregon coast was kind of remote. I love that here San Antonio and Austin are just a few hours away and New Orleans is just about 7 hours away also. And DFW up north. Not to mention everything in between. Definitely lots to do and nice little cities to get away for a weekend.

@Jessica: Oregon is beautiful. I loved growing up there. Portland is an awesome city. Unfortunately, I can't say as great of things about the housing market up there as I can say down here in Texas. I only lived in Portland for a few months so I can't say much about the job market either.

We have a house on the Oregon coast we are trying to sell, actually. LOL. I would not recommend moving to that town at all though... Good riddance to that place.