California vs Texas

It's not mentioned often, but there is very little public land in Texas. Compare NM, AZ, and CA to Texas. http://goo.gl/maps/P36KG

And politically speaking from what I've been reading lately Texas is not as conservative as it used to be...

 

Agreed I have family in central Texas and almost all land is private. Hiking could end up getting you shot haha.

 

Well, I've lived in both states for years at a time (Texas 20 and Cali 8). Texas is nice if you don't live in Houston or Dallas. Out in the country you must like the more conservative types (read as hillbillies...but nicer). West Texas is a miserable desert (unless you like deserts). The Texas hillcountry is very nice. Mountain biking and good mellow people. Houston is too big and dirty and Dallas is a city on meth. I know this may piss off some of the locals but, well since I lived all over Texas I'm okay with that.

Cali is just like Texas in that it really deoends on where you live. L.A. (Orange county) is a Charlie Foxtrot (if you know what that means). Southern Cal is nice. It has great weather and liberal laid back people (mostly). Nor Cal was more hippies and tech nerds (kind of the same thing). The mountains are great. The coast is great. Lots of nutty laws and restrictions and it's really expensive but I still liked it. I lived in Laguna Niguel BTW.

It really all depends on where you may be living. Do you know what city in either state?

 

Agree. Texas is probably 90% private property.....and Texans love guns...and using them!

 

I love living in CA! No laws or taxes have stopped me from enjoying my life here. Spent summer of 2012 in Texas, drove through a couple of times for a couple of days, too, before and after my summer stay. I'd choose CA again, although TX is cool to visit, imo. I love having the beach and mountains within reach, Mexico/Sand Diego/San Fran/Vegas/CO River/etc, the weather, the earthquakes, the people.... I like CA.

 

Cali does have a lot of beautiful places to see, wish Texas had more. But east of Dallas and south of Dallas is a nice place to be.

 

Move to Texas and use the huge pile of cash you accumulate not paying state income tax to fund a couple Cali vacations.

High state income taxes, highest welfare state in the country, I'd rule it out just out of principle. Simply refuse to support that kind of a system.

 

All the cali bros are gonna get mad, but the job opportunities here are limitless. More people keep moving to Tx just for that reason and it's the only reason I am still here.



List of cities with the most growth, there is also an article from Time mag that is worth the read.

http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/17/10-reasons-texas-is-our-future/

 

That's a great point. Population growth happens for a reason. People don't flock to a state because it sucks.

 

You can't beat Cali for it's weather and the closeness of the beach,desert and the mtn's! BUT everything else sucks the traffic all the bullshit you have to go threw to enjoy things!!You have to have a wilderness pass to even hike ,go out to Glamis pay what 50.00 to camp.Try to get a concealed gun permit in Cali Ha!I lived there 49 years and loved it and hated it!I moved to a little town in Colorado and would never even think of going back. I can open carry or do what I did take a 2 day course and get a ccp license.People are way more friendly here they actually look at you and say Hi!Plus the mountain by me gets more snow than anywhere else in Colorado,I have trophy fishing, hunting and hiking 15 minutes from my house.Oh and I paid $65,000 for a 2bd 2ba house with a garage on 1/4 acre!!

 

I would say weather and having everything so close you could do it all in the same day is nice. There are a lot of things that could be better. Laws and jobs are what I wish was better here. If you plan on having kids the schools are alright here. I know Texas has good schools from what my friend who just moved to Frisco, TX has told me. To own a house here in SoCal i know you are looking around 500000+ for a small house. All depends on your hobbies. Personally I surfed growing up, but not so much anymore. I mostly off road and ride motocross or desert. Still do not have a good job though as they are few and far in between unless you know someone.

 

^500000 damn that is literally a mansion here!

 

a 2-3 bedroom where I live is at least $1,000,000

 

damn! are your salaries that much higher?

 

You can really Combine Dallas and Fort Worth, because you have to include Allen, Mesquite, Weatherford and Up to Denton...can't really just count those two. Not to mention cities like Keller and Frisco are constantly in the top 10 places to live in the country.

The job market is what brought me here.

 

Yeah, homes can be expensive out here, but you don't have to live in Los Angeles. There are a lot of places with less expensive homes (maybe not TX cheap) if you don't mind driving further to where you have to be. As far as salaries go, that all depends on what line of work you're in. There are some career opportunities CA offers that TX may not, and vice versa.

So, OP which do you feel offers you the best career opportunity?

 

California jobs dont really pay that much more, it's the shit ton of people wanting to live in a small area that drives up demand for real estate in LA especially.

 

$$$ that is what it is about here. Back in 2005 my house 2-3 miles from the beach in hb sold for $750000 And it is a small 3 bedroom with a pool and it's not super nice. It was double what was bought for in 1996. Houses on the beach cost a couple million with no privacy, five feet between each other, and are probably 15' wide depending on which city. I was looking in Ainsworth, Nebraska, where I would like to move for a job if it ever comes through, and a house is about 100000. My friend who just moved there pays more on his truck payment than his house payment and he rents out his basement to a friend charging more than his house payments a month. The houses out there have more like 20+ feet between the houses. If you want the weather and everything close by california maybe for you. Another thing to consider if you don't live close to work california traffic will drive you insane. I lived about 23 miles from work which took me about 25 minutes when there was no traffic. And when there was, it took me 2 hours at times.

 

I don't know anything about California. I do know I love Texas, and I've spent my whole life in Austin. This city has it all

 

A lot of great info and comments so far. Thanks everyone.

As for career opportunities I just started poking around at what is in both states. The company I work for does have a manufacturing facility in San Antonio so I've been keeping an eye out there. My title is Design Specialist and I am in engineering. Not a degreed engineer(two year degree in CAD design) but I do mostly sheet metal and piping design for large air cooled chillers. Basically the engineer says "these are the components we are going to use(proverbial 10 pounds of sh*t)" and I design the structure and piping for it to fit in the envelope(5 pound bucket) product management specifies.