We’ve now lived in Texas for a whole year. WHAT! We get questions all the time about moving to Texas, so here are 8 reasons why we love living here.
Thinking about moving to Texas? So are a lot of other people!
Moving to Texas? A few weeks ago my mom texted me and told me that she’d read that over 86,000 people moved to Texas in 2019. We happened to be five of those people! Since we moved here one year ago, I get questions constantly about moving to Texas, and today I wanted to share 8 of our favorite things about living in The Lone Star State.
Spoiler alert, we love it here.
Did we miss living in California after we moved to Texas?
We LOVED California, especially living in Huntington Beach, which is where we lived for four years when we first moved to California. Honestly we talked about staying in California forever, even though we didn’t think it would actually happen.
But as our boys got older, we began to feel like California wasn’t the right place for us. We didn’t know where the right place was, but when Philip got a job opportunity in Dallas, we immediately felt like moving to Texas was the right thing for us.
The two things I really miss about California are my friends (obviously) and the beach. I loved living close to the water and being able to go to the beach anytime we wanted. The smell, the sound, the views…I miss it all so much.
One year after our move, here’s how we feel about moving to Texas
So, a year into living in Dallas, Texas, this is why we think moving to Texas is a great choice if you’re on the fence about it!
1. Cost of living, duh
Ok, we can all agree that California is just stupid expensive. As I mentioned, we lived in Huntington Beach for four years, and although it was a dream location, we had three boys and no backyard. We had a back patio, and we knew it just wouldn’t work long term. So we built a house inland about 15 miles where had a yard, but still it was just so expensive.
When we started house hunting in Texas, the housing prices were laughable. You could get the same size house with a huge yard in a great location for a fraction of the prices in California. We have loved that Texas has given us the ability to really start putting a lot of money away into our savings accounts again.
2. Southern hospitality
Southern hospitality is one of those things you hear about, but holy cow — it’s a real thing. The people here are just such good, kind, friendly people. They smile and wave as they walk or drive past; they invite you over; they check in on you; they start up conversations in the grocery store line.
I feel like a lot of the young families in the Dallas suburbs are Texas transplants. Because of this, many of them don’t have family around, so their friends become their family and everyone just bands together and takes care of each other. It’s so amazing!
3. We get all four seasons
Living in paradise with 70 degree F weather basically year round is amazing. Don’t get me wrong. But moving to Texas at the beginning of February gave us the tail end of winter, and then right into the most beautiful spring, a sticky and hot summer, and then a gorgeous fall. I forgot how much I loved living somewhere with variation!
Not all parts of Texas get all four seasons like this, but our area does and it’s glorious. Our neighborhood has a long, winding, hilly road that goes in and out of the neighborhood, and we live at the very back so we have to drive up and down this road (about 4 miles) everyday to get in and out. It’s lined with big beautiful trees, and during the spring they all burst into bloom, during the summer they’re green and lush, and during the fall they’re brilliant red and orange. It’s like a little gift to me everyday while I drive.
4. A great place to raise a family
I can only speak specifically to Dallas, but it’s a great family city. There are tons of young families, lots of family friendly things to do in and around the city, and great schools!
5. Wide open spaces
When we first moved here, I had my first very distinct feeling of being “land locked.” I remembered people talking about that when we lived in Utah, but I had grown up in Las Vegas so it never bothered me. But after moving away from the ocean, it felt very weird to know we were completely surrounded by land for hundreds of miles.
BUT we live in an area (we live in North Dallas) that has beautiful, open fields filled with cows and having all this space without everything just so crowded (like California) feels really amazing. We actually live right by a small lake too, with hiking trails around it, so I feel like there’s lots of room to move and breathe.
6. Close to a major city
As I mentioned above, we live in a North Dallas suburb. We’re about 30-40 minutes from downtown Dallas, so close enough to go down there occasionally, but far enough away from the busyness of city life.
Like living in Orange County, I love living by a major city. There’s lots to do, it’s a destination city, great restaurants and entertainment, and amazing hotels.
We plan to do many staycations down there to get a better feel for the city!
7. Living on Central Time
This is maybe a weird thing, but I love being on Central Time. Previously we were on Pacific Time and I felt like I was always behind everyone else in the country. By the time I woke up, people on the east coast were halfway through their day!
I don’t know why it even bothered me, but now living in Central time feels like I’m a little ahead of the game all day, and for some reason I like that.
8. Easy to get away anywhere
Another huge benefit of living in a place with a major city is that we have a major airport. We’re one of the hubs for American Airlines (so many of our friends work for the airline too!), so there are tons of flights all day long, and the airport is only about 15 minutes away from us.
It’s also great to live centrally in the United States so we have quicker flights to basically anywhere in the whole country.
2 THINGS I DON’T LOVE ABOUT LIVING IN TEXAS, SO FAR
1. It’s very flat
Everyone told me this, but until we flew in for the very first time last February, I really didn’t understand it. WHOA, it’s flat. Like zero hills anywhere. If you ever see a hill, it stands out like a sore thumb – it’s very bizarre!
Miraculously, our neighborhood is built on some small hills, so we actually have a very hilly drive in and out of our neighborhood. Because of this, I forget how flat everything else is until I drive out of our area.
Does the flatness bother me? No, not really. But I do miss the hills and mountains and variation of California and Utah and Nevada that I’ve experience throughout the rest of my life.
2. Everyone leaves for the whole summer.
This is a weird thing that I did not expect and still don’t really understand. I mentioned above that many young families here are Texas transplants, so tons of these families leave for the entire summer to visit their families in other states. People are literally gone for three entire months of the year!
We’ve only experienced it for one summer, obviously, but it gets very quiet and empty for a few months!
If you’re on the fence about moving to Texas, hopefully this helps! And of course if you have any other questions, leave me a comment here, or over on my Instagram!
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I moved from New Orleans yo North Dallas and Was so excited DFW was so hilly! Love the DIFFERENT pErspectives we all bring.
OriginallY from mn, we moved to texas (Houston area) for a few years due to my husband’s job. I was just as amazed how far your dollar went towards housing! We loved tAking road trips to Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio as well as longer drives to Louisiana, Florida, and Arkansas! But, those summers were rough (heat-wise) and understandable why people traveled then! So happy to hear your first year has been great!
Many of my same reasons for loving Texas, as well as no state incOme tax and world-class doctors at your fingertips in DFW! One perk of the Flatness in North Texas, we get The most beautiful sunsets. Like, mind-blowingly stunning! Unfortunately, flat also means we get some crazy winds too…
Austin is quitE hilly (i always forget how different the terrain is), so we didn’t get such great sunsets while i lived there growing up. Austin Marathon was this past weekend and apparently was quite tough due to the hills – i know some people who didn’t realize how much different the hill country was compared to NTX and decided to just be done at the halfway point!
Yes! Definitely agree with all of these! We’re moving to the austin area later this year and We are so excited! We’re Moving from just outside of Edmonton, Alberta so it will be a big change! I’m looking forward to being closer to the oCean and closer to so many interesting new places to explore! <3
Im a texas native and Those are great reasons… I think the different terrains of Texas is something that people are not aware of… West Texas is what you see in a western movie, Its flat, dry like a desert and has beautiful canyons, central Texas is green, hilly and has tons of wildflowers and East Texas is a thick forest… its all Beautiful 🙂
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