Hanging up the keys in Texas?

[Velos]

If you were to get off the road today and settle somewhere year round in Texas where would it be ie Austin, San Antonio, Livingston, Dallas, Mission etc and why and how? ie RV Community, Park Model, Sticks n bricks, weather, taxes, family, friends, services, medical care, hobbies etc.

 

If you have lived in Texas before where did you live and what did you find to be the pro's and con's?

[chirakawa]

I personally prefer the Hill Country west of Austin. Summer heat will be oppressive wherever you choose.

[coachmac9]

I was born and raised in Livingston and spent 36 years of my life there. Things I loved about the area were relatively inexpensive cost of living, fishing, hunting, great people, churches and small town atmosphere. Things I hate about the area are "love" bugs, heat (all year), rising crime rate, not a lot of choices on restraunts and did I mention the HEAT?!!!!

I started my second career as a teacher/coach at 36 and have lived all over the state for the past 26 years. South Texas, Central Texas and North East Texas. If I had to choose one area to "hang my keys" up in I guess I would choose north east Tx. I have spent almost 10 years now in that area and absolutely love it. Climate is milder and you actually have four seasons, close to the mountains of Arkansas, good fishing/hunting, close enough to larger cities (but not to big) like Shreveport, Texarkanna and Tyler and cost of living is still relatively cheap as well as real estate can be found that is very affordable.

[Kirk W]

Like most anywhere, Texas has both good and bad things to deal with. Throw in the size factor of Texas and you really can get a very wide variety of choices. A few years back, Pam was facing some major health issues that needed continuing attention so we began the same search that you are probing now. For us, there were some important issues that caused us to narrow our search but those may well be different for other folks. For us a key factor was the experience that I had in assisting my parents through their declining years from 5/6 hours travel away, which caused us to choose a location that was within a couple of hours of travel of our sons.

 

We actually looked at several locations that appealed to us very strongly and you may find them of interest as well. One area that we nearly bought into was near Medina, TX on the edge of the hill country. We also give very serious consideration to Ft. Clark Springs, at Brackettville, TX. We probably would have bought there if not for the distance from our sons in Dallas. We also gave serious consideration to both TX Escapee parks and were for a time on the wait list for Lone Star Corral at Hondo. Each of those had a lot of appeal, but other factors got in the way.

 

We believe that living as an active part of the RV community changes many things in our attitudes and the fact that we didn't want to completely stop RV life is most of what lead us to our current home-base. We didn't go with one of the Escapee co-op parks because we wanted to build more of a permanent home than they allow and we found a park model to be a little bit too small. Our present community has park models, but allow up to 900 square feet of living space and you can build a permanent home but also keep an RV site for your RV or even for a visitor to use if you don't have an RV. We live in Bass Lake Christian Retirement Community which does have two homes and two less developed lots that are for sale.

 

In addition to this area being under 2 hours travel from our sons, it is only 20 miles from the city of Tyler which is 100k in population and has all of the services of any city. Tyler is also a medical center with 3 teaching hospitals and so has pretty much all of the medical specialties and clinics that an aging population may require. East TX can get pretty warm at times but is more moderate than most places that have minimal winter weather. We do get cold and occasional snow, but winter her typically begins just before Christmas and is pretty much over by late February. We do have small lawns for those who enjoy caring for them but there is lawn service available for $50/month in warm weather for those who do not. We have private streets, water, & sewer and we are in a rural area, but close to two small towns as well as Tyler. We are about 70 miles to the east of Dallas, via I-20 and 250 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. It isn't perfect, but then what location is?

 

We like the lack of any state income tax, reasonable Smith Co. property taxes, rural atmosphere, easy access to all city needs or desires, moderate weather most of the time, excellent medical services, ready access to the highways ( miles to I-20), inexpensive cost of living, and the friendly rural people. We sometimes feel that the area is still living in the 1950's, with both good and bad factors. We are pretty much crime free, but do depend upon the sheriff's department if law enforcement is needed and we have good ambulance service, but it does take about 15/20 minutes to get here. We site on the dividing line of two fire districts so have protection from both and it is quick for a rural area. TX has very good rural roads so that is a positive. Being rural, we don't have all of the services that a city does.

[TXiceman]

Bad part about the hill country is the cost of living, higher property values and taxes and it is getting more crowded. There is also getting to be a problem with furure water shortages.

 

When we come off the road, we plan to head to east Texas. Problems with Texas in the summer is the heat and along the coast, humidity.

 

Ken

[AFchap]

I would choose either the East Texas area around Tyler, OR West Texas around Lubbock. ...Livingston would not be a bad option. NO WAY would I choose Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston, etc ...all are far too big for me with traffic I don't want to deal with, and Austin is also far too Liberal/Socialist/Leftist. Tyler has more of a small town feel, and has all the medical resources you could want. Lubbock is similar with not quite as many medical facilities. Both have several smaller towns in easy driving range if you want the small town feel. East Texas has higher humidity and more trees. West Texas is up on the caprock/high plains and weather is much drier and more pleasant than Dallas/Ft Worth area, but is more subject to winds that East Texas would be. Lubbock would be more likely to have snow in the winter than would Tyler. I doubt there is much difference in taxes between the two.

We got off the road 5 years ago near Tyler ...we chose Tyler over Lubbock primarily because we have children/grandchildren in Alabama and East Texas is a one day drive vs a two day drive from West Texas.

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

My guess is that I've lived in more parts of Texas than most anyone. Like others my favorite is the hill country with east Texas being a close second. However, if I factor in family and friends I'd probably end up somewhere just north of the Houston metro area.

[Barbaraok]

If it were me, I'd be looking at Corpus Christie.

[sandsys]

If it were me, I'd be looking at Corpus Christie.

 

Really? When it was you didn't you choose Tyler?

 

Linda Sand

[Barbaraok]

We were in Tyler for work. I like the Corpus Christie area. Originally from the PNW and have to stick my toes in salt water every once in a while. There is an A&M Campus in Corpus, lots of others things, plus on the Gulf. If we were going to pick a spot to land in Texas that would be my choice.

[Mike and Claudia]

We have narrowed it down to:

 

Rockport for the winter: Not too cool, nice area, small town, great shopping (HEB grocery: the best we've found)

 

and Cimarron, NM for the summer. Very moderate temperature, just at the base of the mountains, interesting scenery, poor shopping area, small town.

 

If you had to limit me to one place, perhaps somewhere south of central Texas maybe Bastrop, Lexington, LaGrange, Victoria.

 

I HATE humidity, extreme heat, and snow!

[Al F]

I would give consideration to Alpine and Ft. Davis in West Texas. Beautiful wide open country. There is a decent hospital in Alpine. The summer temps, at 4500' for Alpine and 4900' at Ft Davis, are not too hot. The July/August temps are in the mid to upper 80's and low to mid 90's some days. But with the very dry climate, 10%-15% humidity, that temp is comfortable. Bright sunny skies almost all the time. To check the temps go to Weather Underground History Calendar. On the history calendar, with just a click of the mouse you can select the history for any month of any year to see what the actual temps were. Much, much more informative than just average temps or the high & lows for the month.

 

The down sides are no big box stores within about 175-200 miles, such as Walmart, Safeway, Costco, Best Buy, etc. Also nearest large airports are about the same distance away, at El Paso or Midland/Odessa.

[Clay L]

I was born and raised in TX. Got my BSEE degree at UT Arlington . Spent many nights in a storm/root cellar as a child. Came back to Arlington from a visit to relatives in Gainesville to find our mobile home park devastated by a tornado. Lifted our mobile up and set it back down twisting the frame some. We had planned on keeping it after I graduated until we could get a house but couldn't move it to my new job in CO and had to sell it.

Lastly when we were full timing and had to stay in Gainesville for a month with my mother in her last days, we had two tornadoes come close by. Sitting there for hours with bail-out bags and the dogs leashed so we could run for the RV park bathhouse brought back all of the tornado dread for both of us. At that point we decided TX was not where we wanted to live after we left the road.

We ended up back in a western CO high desert valley near Grand Junction CO. Very low risk for tornadoes and only 9 listed within 30 miles since 1950.

Strongest was an F1 in 2015 that I didn't even know about until I went on line a few minutes ago to get the statistics for our area again. Only one other was an F1 and the rest were less than F1.

Tornadoes may not bother you that much. but we are happy that we don't have to be concerned about thunder storms.

[TXiceman]

Alpines hospital is a big BASIC emergency center. The nearest major medical is 3 hours away in Midland/Odessa. I love the Davis mountains, but too far from medical.

 

Kne

[RV_]

Paul, your assessment of Austin may sell some of us on it. We were assigned to Lackluster AFB in San Antonio two times and I retired from there as a Texan. I'd choose Austin but not for the politics. Politics is not my forte but Internet is. Austin has cheap gigabit Internet. It has a college campus and good cultural range from BBQ to the Arts. Right nearby is a factory outlet shopping center. I watch Austin City limits and am amazed at how old a lot of the concert goers are then remember they look just like me! OMG! When did I go from salt and pepper to dirty salt hair! http://www.bing.com/search?q=365+Things+to+Do+in+Austin&FORM=QSRE3 If an area is tolerant of others and does not judge everyone else I can deal with it. It is the tin foil hat extreme 20% in everything that makes any human endeavor a chore north/south, left/right, Ford/Chevy/Dodge, HDT/MDT/light duty, Jeans/Khakis, Black water chemicals or not, Army/AF/Navy/Marines, there will always be folks who share some knowledge, and others who insist on nonsense. I am retired, if a zealot of any stripe starts in on me, I tell them thanks for that I have to run now, and I avoid that person from that point on. Most of us here can sit down and enjoy the differences as well as the similarities of our travels, temperament and tolerances.

 

However we are going back North to the Denver area sometime in the next few years. Our remaining parent is very ill with Alzheimer's, and it is only a matter of a few year/months/weeks. Once we get him taken care of we will get away from cold humid winters and tornadoes. I get a giggle out of folks that say they love the heat and could never live where there is snow. I giggle because I ask them where they are in 100° sunny days with high humidity. I drive through subdivisions in every class of neighborhood and they are all inside in the A/C. And the damp cold goes to the bone with no ice to skate on or snow to ski down. I much prefer trout and saltwater fish, and at least there we will have trout, but not much Crawdad boils. Tradeoffs everywhere.

 

We did Alaska from May to September while fulltiming, and it is the ideal in summer/early fall, but we don't think we would like no sun for 1/4 or a bit more of the year.

[297550]

I would choose either the East Texas area around Tyler, OR West Texas around Lubbock. ...Livingston would not be a bad option. NO WAY would I choose Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Ft Worth, Houston, etc ...all are far too big for me with traffic I don't want to deal with, and Austin is also far too Liberal/Socialist/Leftist. Tyler has more of a small town feel, and has all the medical resources you could want. Lubbock is similar with not quite as many medical facilities. Both have several smaller towns in easy driving range if you want the small town feel. East Texas has higher humidity and more trees. West Texas is up on the caprock/high plains and weather is much drier and more pleasant than Dallas/Ft Worth area, but is more subject to winds that East Texas would be. Lubbock would be more likely to have snow in the winter than would Tyler. I doubt there is much difference in taxes between the two.

 

We got off the road 5 years ago near Tyler ...we chose Tyler over Lubbock primarily because we have children/grandchildren in Alabama and East Texas is a one day drive vs a two day drive from West Texas.

Tonanados ...

[AFchap]

Tonanados ...

 

I was born in tornado alley in NW Oklahoma, and have lived in tornado country in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Ohio (heard of the Xenia, OH tornado?), Alabama, and SE Colorado. I have also lived in typhoon country on the island of Guam and hurricane country in the Carolinas and Virginia. Every area has it's buggaboos ...wherever you choose to live, there are unique challenges to live with. East Texas is no where near as scary weather-wise as several of the other places I have lived!

[Velos]

Humidity is a big negative for us, heat is preferable to cold and we have no immediate family so our options are open to anywhere in the US but being Texans already we were trying there first.

 

We like the idea of smaller towns, but convenient medical care may trump that for us as with no family we wouldn't want to have to drive too far to the Dr. or hospital.

 

In our younger day we liked the middle of nowhere but now we appreciate the neighbors and the activities provided in a gated active adult community whether it be a RV park with a casita or deeded lot we could put a roof over our RV or Sticks n Bricks are something we would consider.

 

Colleges near by are a good source of new ideas to keep a town growing and current.

 

Great info, thank you all for the input. Lots to ponder.

[Al F]

Alpines hospital is a big BASIC emergency center. The nearest major medical is 3 hours away in Midland/Odessa. I love the Davis mountains, but too far from medical.

 

Kne

Here is a link to the Big Bend Regional Health Center in Alpine. Granted it is not a major medical center like you find in cities like Dallas, Houston or San Antonio, but I didn't think it was a rinky-dinky little hospital either.

[tibbar]

I live in Austin and taxes on our $230,000 house are about $7,000 this year and went up almost $450 over last year. Thank goodness the school taxes have now been frozen since I turned 65. The city bill is padded with over $70 in fees and customer service charges. It is almost time to sell and get out of the ever increasing cost to live here. Only problem is I love my house and it's location. I am lucky though because my sister bought an RV park in Kingsland where we now have our RV and I can move there and stay for free or the cost of electric.

[Capt Frank]

I was based in Houston for 8-years when I was still flying. I'm a desert rat from Phoenix and the South Texas humidity was almost more than I could bear. If I had to go back would be West Texas for sure!

 

Frank

[Al F]

I live in Austin and taxes on our $230,000 house are about $7,000 this year and went up almost $450 over last year. Thank goodness the school taxes have now been frozen since I turned 65. The city bill is padded with over $70 in fees and customer service charges. It is almost time to sell and get out of the ever increasing cost to live here. Only problem is I love my house and it's location. I am lucky though because my sister bought an RV park in Kingsland where we now have our RV and I can move there and stay for free or the cost of electric.

Yep, property taxes are high in Texas. Sales taxes are pretty high as well, not as high as some states though.

 

While I am very happy Texas doesn't have an income tax, there has to be taxes or fees to pay for the government provided services we want and need. High property taxes is one way to help pay for those services. This is not to say that government couldn't be more efficient, but if you want needed services the has to be some way to pay for them.

[coachmac9]

Property taxes vary greatly from one area to another in Texas...lots of rural areas in Texas with very low tax rates.

[Newt]

Property taxes vary greatly from one area to another in Texas...lots of rural areas in Texas with very low tax rates.

 

Different areas also differ greatly in which taxing entities allow homestead and old age exemptions.

 

Newt

[Grawe]

I have to agree with alot of the previous posts; East Texas, specifically the Austin/Hills area would be my choice. We spent 6 years in West Texas and while it was a great family community and some of our friends homesteaded there; it was not our choice for retirement. Very hot summers and not alot of outdoor activities (no mountains, beaches, lakes, etc). Austin is expensive but the weather and scenery is so much nicer. Not to mention, there is something new going on every week. We were there 2 weeks ago, visiting our son in college, and stayed at a very nice KOA in Leander. Ultimatley it is all about what makes you happy. Good luck on your decision!