Husbands Job Is Wanting to Move Him to Texas. Help.

Seems like Gamma G really covered the areas well...

I am going to tell you being a Texan born and bred...and my husband was born up east and was transplanted in his teens, neither of us could see moving anyplace else (except with in the Texas boarders).

The state really is like its own country as you have different climates depending on where in the state you live.

Now if they don't change your husbands salary any...the cost of living will blow you away it is so low. We have friends who moved from Chicago, sold their itty bitty town house and bought a two story mini-mansion (six bedrooms four and a half baths). For the same amount of money.

In the whole real estate thing our house lost value but never below what we paid for it...so no upside down thing for us or any one else we know well enough to share.

Texas is a BIG sports state...you can't throw a rock on Saturday mornings without hitting a soccer game in progress, there are so many leagues for kids and adults. Football...ha, every school from middle school up has a football team...and most serious football kids/parents start playing in Pop Warner leagues at the age of four.

We do not have state income tax. So there is one thing you don't have to worry about... Uh, you pay property taxes on your house, but they usually include that in escrow so it is part of your mortgage payment. Cars and taxes....I don't really know...

Visit the schools they vary area by area...

Message me if you have any other questions...I am in San Antonio so I am not close to either Midland or Fairfield, but I have a girlfriend from the Midland area and tons of friends who have moved from the Dallas/Ft.Worth area to San Antonio...I could ask some of them.

Good luck on your adventure!!

Texas is a state that has so much variety. It has "mountains" and it has plains where you can see the sun horizon to horizon from sun up to sun down. You can drive a few hours and be in a different country or a few hours the other way and get on a ship and travel the world by sea.
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Midland:

The Guadalupe Mountain Range are close to Midland as is the Chihuahuan Desert as is Mexico. It is a dry heat kind of place in the summer and has a little water around it. The cities nearest to it that are what "I" would call civilization are the Santa Fe/Albuquerque areas (about 7 hours) in New Mexico and the Dallas/Fort Worth area (about 5 1/2 hours). San Antonio is about the same distance as the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I could not live in that area myself. I hate the heat of summer and am not a country kind of girl by any means. I was born and raised in the main OKC area. Smaller towns are okay but when it gets below 30K or so it is pretty rural. Midland has a larger population and I am sure it isn't totally horrible.

But when it comes to travel outside that area you get on I-20 and drive to the Dallas/Fort Worth area then go on major highways to get to where you're going. If you're traveling to Colorado it would be a 12 1/2 hour drive no matter which highway you took. BUT the whole route is across the plains and would be through small towns and on 2 lane highways.

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Fairfield:

On the other hand if you did move to the Fairfield area you have the Dallas/Fort Worth area just over an hour away, it adds time to your travel back to Colorado but it is on 4 lane interstate almost all the way via I-35 and I-70. It's just over an hour to a major magalopolis city.

There is Dallas and Fort Worth along with a dozen or more smaller cities with hundreds if not thousands of places to shop, do family things like 6 Flags, visit huge museums, just everything "I" could want. There is also a major airport for travel to anywhere in the world.

San Antonio is again, just over a 4 hour drive, but it has many things to do too, like Sea World, one of the nations largest zoos, and the River Walk area. It is a nice place to be able to be close to. Both cities are about equal distance from here.

Houston is about 2 1/2 hours from Fairfield. To me that is the biggest pull. There are major ports in the Houston area if you like cruises or ocean activities like laying on the beach and playing in the water. There is also Galveston, the Space Center, the Children's Museum, and many many more places to visit.

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So, if "I" was given the option to move to Texas I would weigh the salary and benefits each position was offering. I would think the Midland might offer better ones to give incentive to get you to choose that area then I would look at the cost of housing. If it's at all comparable then I would choose Fairfield.

BUT, since I am from Oklahoma I would chose to live between Dallas/Fort Worth and Fairfield, maybe in Corsicana, if possible so I could pop over whenever I wanted and hubby could drive a little further.

That's what "I" would do.

I am not very familiar with the towns you are talking about but we've been in the Plano/Allen (Northern Dallas burb) about 25 yrs now. We couldn't imagine living elsewhere.

The cost of living is lower, the bad economy did not hit TX (at least our area) like it has in other areas, there is no shortage for business (we own our company which is in raw materials and we are having record sales... we sell to manufacturers throughout the US and Mexico), people are hiring... you see signs everywhere. Taxes... our personal property taxes are high (about $12,000 a year) but that is based on your property appraisel and not the same for everyone. It fluctuates some when the yearly appraisels come out.

We do NOT escrow...... we know we have a bill due by the end of the year so we are disciplined enough to use our money instead of letting the bank use our money. Our house insurance is around $2500 per year based on our home and a couple of special riders we have in place. Depending on where you are depends on the taxes.. we are in a higher tax area and it is worth it. As for cars, we pay about $70 a year for the tag and $40 a year for inspection and about $4000 a year on insurance coverage... BUT... our car insurance is higher due to the make/model of our 3 higher end cars and the fact that we have a 17 yr old daughter driving.

We chose this area 25 yrs ago because we saw the potential of it being able to withstand a period of time with bad economy, we came in right after the housing bust and got a nice home and have since upgraded and built twice. We have not lost value on any home we've owned. Our current home is still appraised well above what we paid when we built it.

We LOVE having access to 2 airports and can be on either coast within 3 hours from our house, to airport, to flight. We love all the things to do, especially sports, shopping, etc.

We are in one of the best school disricts in the country. Plano ISD has more National Merit Scholars than other districts in the DFW area and her school is named as in the top 1% of high schools in America by Newsweek.

Check with greatschools.com to get ratings for schools in the area you are looking to purchase.

We are not Texan born... hubby is from Northeast and I am from MS and we moved here from NC.

As far as the weather, we love it. We HATE cold weather. We've not experienced much damage from the typical storms that come through, but we are in an area that is pretty well protected and we back up to an 85 acre park. Some trees are hundreds of years old. Have we had some wind damage?, yes with some trees but nothing structural.

Right now it is 11:40am, bright sunney day with a current temp of about 65 with the high to hit 75 today. The weather changes SO fast... when people complain, we just say wait a day and it will be different again... LOVE it. We love the big beautiful sky!

I hope you find the info you are looking for and if you move to Texas... Welcome!

Viola:

Just earlier this month you stated you were behind on your bills and your mortgage and your husband wants to file bankruptcy.

Benefits:
* Moving Freshman year is MUCH easier than junior or senior year.
* The cost of living is cheaper in Texas
* You MIGHT be able to sell your home and clear up some of your financial distress

Con:
* You might not be able to get a mortgage if you are behind on your current one.

http://www.midlandtexas.com/denise_midland.htm
http://www.bestplaces.net/city/texas/midland
http://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator/Texas-M...

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/state-taxes-texas.aspx

Sounds like you guys need a fresh start and this might be it. Get your house ready for sale and do some real research on this. Let your son finish out his freshman year and get it all done by June 2013.

Midland has a housing shortage and a waiting list to rent apartments.
I have been recruited to work there and the big raise would be offset by the cost of living due to the oil boom.

mywesttexas.com is a link to the local paper.

No state employment taxes is a plus and there are sales tax rates between 6 and 9 % depending on the county.

Midland has direct flights to Dallas and Denver, both hubs. It takes about 4 hours to get to Dallas about 5 1/2 hours to get to San Antonio with traffic.

I like San Antonio and not much else of Texas, but in today's economy if your husband can't find another job and you and the kids aren't staying behind, then he gets home when he can to visit. Otherwise the family needs to understand what's best for everyone. This is especially important for your teenage son to understand that things will not always go his way and he will meet new friends in the school. (Texas is big on sports)

I'm sure there will be lots of mama's from Texas that can give you more and better advice about the two cities.

Best wishes.

Cost of living in TX is cheaper than where you live now. Midland is probably more accessible to airports, etc, but the landscape is flat and scrubby. Fairfield is a little bit off the beaten path, but has more trees, etc. We had a deer lease in Fairfield for a few years, and it was pretty rural, but I haven't been there in a while.