great places to live in Texas- conservative (Dallas, Abilene: 2014, high crime)

[rr2005]

Originally Posted by Granny Fats

Quoting:

"...I left before water rationing in 2007, but I was there during some of the driest years on record. You never did answer my question in another thread--how long have you lived there yourself? I'm just trying to understand your perspective and from where you are coming.

Gardening in drier areas does indeed have its challenges. You have to work with less water, high winds, excessive and prolonged heat--I gardened in both Midland and Alamogordo, NM (which presented yet another set of challenges, including colder nights and a shorter growing season).

No, it's not as easy as gardening in a higher rainfall area, but to tell people that you can't garden in West Texas is very misleading. You ju
st have to adapt..."

You are welcome to disagree, but no, I am not misleading anyone about the "gardening" situation here. Things change in 7 years. And bye the bye, I don't haunt these forums, so DMs are the best way to contact me with any questions. I'm really not interested in other forum members "vetting" me in some way, though. I'm interested in trying to give and receive pertinent information on the various threads.

I live in West Texas and have grown a garden every year since forever. Not difficult if you have a water hose in the vicinity and aren't trying to grow rice or some such.

[winkosmosis]

The tax system in Texas is anything but conservative. Income is not taxed, but wealth is taxed-- property tax is about 3%. When you see a house price, figure that over 3 decades you'll pay that value yet again in taxes. Keep that in mind when you're thinking about cost of living.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

The tax system in Texas is anything but conservative. Income is not taxed, but wealth is taxed-- property tax is about 3%. When you see a house price, figure that over 3 decades you'll pay that value yet again in taxes. Keep that in mind when you're thinking about cost of living.

Texas is definitely in the Top Ten states when it comes to percentage of the value of property that the owner will pay in property taxes:


New Jersey - 1.89%
New Hampshire - 1.86%
Texas - 1.81%
Wisconsin - 1.76%
Nebraska - 1.70%
Illinois - 1.73%
Connecticut - 1.63%
Michigan - 1.62%
Vermont - 1.59%
North Dakota - 1.42%

However, keep in mind that when that property costs MUCH LESS in Texas than in, say, Connecticut, that the actual cost is evened out somewhat.

For instance, the average sales price of a home in New Jersey in 2013 was $384,000. The average sales price for a home in Connecticut in was $604.000. The average sales price of a home in Texas was $230,000.

So - respectively, the average property tax for each of those states on the average home would be:

New Jersey - $7258
Connecticut - $9845
Texas - $4163

Plus - no state income tax.

We are considering a move to Arkansas from Texas. Though the property taxes are very, very low, and housing prices are comparable, maybe even LOWER than in Texas, the state income tax means that to maintain our same standard of living will cost us about $7000 MORE in Arkansas. Something to consider.

[catocate]

thanks for all the great information, this thread is very interesting! I'm a conservative native Californian hoping to escape the leftist utopian dream in the near future and looking toward central Texas. To the original poster: good luck with your move!

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by catocate

thanks for all the great information, this thread is very interesting! I'm a conservative native Californian hoping to escape the leftist utopian dream in the near future and looking toward central Texas. To the original poster: good luck with your move!

Waco's conservative and a good town.

[Granny Fats]

Originally Posted by rr2005

I live in West Texas and have grown a garden every year since forever. Not difficult if you have a water hose in the vicinity and aren't trying to grow rice or some such.

Nope. Wrong.

[MacInTx]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

The tax system in Texas is anything but conservative. Income is not taxed, but wealth is taxed-- property tax is about 3%. .

I don't think so.

I own residential property in Travis county and in Galveston county. The overall property tax rate (city, county, schools, drainage, etc.) is more like 2%, not 3%.

My primary tax payment to the state of Texas is a 6.5% state sales tax. Businesses pay a state tax on property, but residential folks do not.

There is not state tax on "wealth"; investments, other than real estate, are not taxed by the state or by local governments.

[yeshuafollower]

We took a trip to Rusk last Sunday. It's a very small town with lots of trees and it happens to be where my wife went to High School. While in a grocery store in Rusk I asked a gentleman if he likes living in that town. He immediately replied "H*ll no! I'm from Los Angeles." His answer told me that Rusk is great for conservatives. If I had been quick-witted enough, I would have told him that he would love Dallas. The Libs from other states have pretty much taken over that city and their influence seems to be spreading, unfortunately, through the DFW metroplex. My wife says this isn't the Texas she remembers but I reminded her that it just might be a matter of where we landed - in Bedford, between Dallas and Fort Worth.

Bedford itself is nice, at least the part we live in, but it's location isn't so great. Perhaps we've reached the age where we want to live in a small rural conservative REMOTE town. We've lived in Texas now for almost a year and we both have decent paying jobs. We came from the conservative northern half of Nevada.

[Restrain]

Tyler is nice, so is Nacogdoches, Lufkin for smaller cities in east Texas. When moving look for where you can get employment first, then look for housing in a reasonable commuting distance. For example, in DFW, we have people commuting from Tyler and Athens to the east, Ardmore , OK to the north, etc.

[jtur88]

Just curious -- on a day to day basis, how is your (ugh) life impacted by the prevailing liberal values of your community?

I can't help wondering, because I am liberal and I live in Texas, and my day to day life is not impacted at all by the political leanings of people who live around me. Nothing is any different in my daily life. compared to the more liberal state I moved here from. So, when I get on a bus with 20 people, 11 of them are conservative, instead of 9. So what?