Best areas to live in TX

[Dead Eye Dick]

Here is what Austin attracts now. Look at this idiot. I guarantee he's not a "native". Moving from San Bernardino to Austin in the 90's doesn't make one a native.

This is the new Austin look, the prerequisite California cocksucker grey ponytail and commie cap.

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A bit off the subject, But

When the televised music show, “Austin City Limits” went from Country and Western Swing to whatever they call rock music now, I knew Austin was going downhill FAST! The final nail, when, Lance Armstorng’s bike shop, Mellow Johnny’s, quit serving the local police.

 

[Snuby642]

Your aging yourself, I cant even remember that far back.

I do (sort of) remember one crazy (picnic) at a golf course where a pigtail wearing hippie sang country music.

Does that count?

 

[BCP]

At least Texas has character. I am in Arizona which is kind of like Texas without the flavor.

What’s funny is I run into people that try to have that big cowboy hat attitude except they are middle aged retired government workers who live in subdivisions.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

At least Texas has character. I am in Arizona which is kind of like Texas without the flavor.

What’s funny is I run into people that try to have that big cowboy hat attitude except they are middle aged retired government workers who live in subdivisions.

Having been a horse trainer and breeder and run cattle in my earlier days, I feel I can get away with it. Not that I have much of an attitude about it. Real cowboys know the feeling of walking though the pasture while working cattle on the ground and stepping into a pile of cattle manure that has not quite totally dried out yet. (But looks it on the outside)

 

[tomcatmv]

^


Hey, that would've been awesome! I'm an idiot for not posting here before leaving - was sort of a blur. Thought we were going to sign a lease in Driftwood, but once we saw the areas and lack of towns / urban sprawl, we got a bit scared. Horse friends have a ranch between Dripping and Bee Cave, and their place is nice, surrounded by large parcels of conservation land, and ours can stay at their place. There was/is a rental on the north side of Canyon Lake that I was considering as well. Not sure if I posted the decision, but we will be renting for the first year as we figure out the areas we like and hopefully build some friendships. No real budget for the rental, but probably wouldn't go above 10K, as that seems to be the top of the market other than outliers. Checking out DFW horse areas between Flower Mound and Argyle now, even though it sounds like it might also be a bust.

You know Wyoming is nicer, has mountains and such and the wind blows all the time so will help you with your wind calls when your Kestral takes a shit. If y'all do come to Texas the first thing I'd ask you to do is visit the Monument at San Jacinto and read the inscriptions there.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Your aging yourself, I cant even remember that far back.

I do (sort of) remember one crazy (picnic) at a golf course where a pigtail wearing hippie sang country music.

Does that count?

Nope, if you haven’t enjoyed the music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, you ain’t country

Bob Wills

 

[TexPatriot]

Your aging yourself, I cant even remember that far back.

I do (sort of) remember one crazy (picnic) at a golf course where a pigtail wearing hippie sang country music.

Does that count?

Ha, I just left there.

 

[Maggot]

Mexico is what you are looking for. It was 30 in Galveston a few weeks ago, but 85 in puera viarta. Puerta Vallarta Most of the mexicans have already come to Texas. Weed is more or less legal. Property taxes are way better. You’re welcome

PV is a nice area but unfortunately righ in one of the Cartel routes north. I was going to retire to Oaxaca but they, the Cartels, have fucked Mexico up entirely. The road from Brownsville/Matamoros to Ciudad Victoria is called "The Highway of Death". Even the army and cops travel in convoys and still get ambushed.

 

[Maggot]

Having been a horse trainer and breeder and run cattle in my earlier days, I feel I can get away with it. Not that I have much of an attitude about it. Real cowboys know the feeling of walking though the pasture while working cattle on the ground and stepping into a pile of cattle manure that has not quite totally dried out yet. (But looks it on the outside)

Real cowboys call it cattle manure?

Im just a Virginia redneck who spent 20 or so years in Texas, and I always heard it called 'Cowshit'. Here and there. When we were kids we couldnt wait for spring to get our school shoes off and go running through the fields just hoping to hit a pile. It felt so weird squishing between your toes.

I still find the smell of cowshit preferable to any stink that comes from a city.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Real cowboys call it cattle manure?

Im just a Virginia redneck who spent 20 or so years in Texas, and I always heard it called 'Cowshit'. Here and there. When we were kids we couldnt wait for spring to get our school shoes off and go running through the fields just hoping to hit a pile. It felt so weird squishing between your toes.

I still find the smell of cowshit preferable to any stink that comes from a city.

Trying to be polite, this being a family (?) site. Shit is shit, and I have spent way more time stepping in it, shoveling it and the worst case, we had a hoarse that used to shit in his feed bucket. Never liked that horse and was glad when he went back to his owners.

How do you get horse shit out of a feed bucket that is permanently attached to the stall wall. Think about it. It ain’t a pleasant thought.

 

[TexPatriot]

Nothing wrong with the smell of cow shit. It brings back memories of my youth and the cow pens at my great uncles.

As far as cleanliness, I would much rather walk through a cow pen than a downtown Austin street.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Back to Texas, Abilene always seemed a nice town. Friendly, had a great steak house, a really nice shooting range and even a decent sailing lake. Above all that, Buffalo Gap was just down the road and that was a great place to tour, spend some time and enjoy a day or more.

Buffalo Gap Historical village is among several historical sites in the area.

 

[TexPatriot]

Trying to be polite, this being a family (?) site. Shit is shit, and I have spent way more time stepping in it, shoveling it and the worst case, we had a hoarse that used to shit in his feed bucket. Never liked that horse and was glad when he went back to his owners.

How do you get horse shit out of a feed bucket that is permanently attached to the stall wall. Think about it. It ain’t a pleasant thought.

Thats weird. We used to clean horse stalls at a boarding stable out on Bee Caves when I was a young teen for a dollar an hour. The old man we worked for would stand there while we raked and shoveled horse shit into a wheel barrel, making sure we didn't talk and he was getting his money's worth out of us. We couldn't raise enough dust to get him to leave.

He griped whenever we asked for a water break so we would drink out of the horse's water tubs. He would say "----, those horses shit and piss in that water and I just hate to see you do that."

Actually, most horses are like dogs and have a far corner in their stall or pen they shit. Mine did.

 

[lariat]

What’s funny is I run into people that try to have that big cowboy hat attitude except they are middle aged retired government workers who live in subdivisions.

This right here is the no bullshit truth. Lots of people in Texas fall into the same category. Always fun to ask them how many upper front teeth their best cow still has.

 

[Chickentoast]

Horses are just like people. Some shit themselves, some shit their own beds, and some shit in the bathroom.

 

[BiggBeans]

stay away dalhart, texhoma, all them places. thats the shitty part of texas. you have to get further into Texas. oh and where ever you go, make sure there are hogs around lol

 

[Snuby642]

Nope, if you haven’t enjoyed the music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, you ain’t country

Bob Wills

View attachment 7819061View attachment 7819062

Pretty sure the drummer lived down the street from me in Mesquite during the 70's.

 

[Steve_In_29]

That sounds great. All my childhood stories are similar in that they would be impossible now. Do you know DFW area at all? Or am I simply chasing a time machine? I may just want 1985 back...

All the major cities in TX voted blue in 2020.

My late son used to live in Graham and it seemed like a pretty nice place when we visited. They still have the old time town square. We actually considered moving there but ended up choosing rural AZ instead. Due to WAY lower property costs and HUGELY lower property tax bill. That "TX has no state tax" thing is WAY over blown, as they WILL get their money one way or the other.

The town in AZ we live 10 miles outside of has no stop lights and the closest supermarket is 40 miles away from our house.

When we went to our son's viewing in Bridgeport, TX the funeral director was telling us about how people from DFW were buying houses there and driving up the real estate prices. $400K for a house in a no where town.

 

[Maggot]

If youre not stuck on east/central Texas, I always thought the area around Alpine was nice. Quiet, but nice.

 

[TexPatriot]

I lived and went to school in Alpine in the 70's. Beautiful country. Willie Nelson fuc't up Lajitas putting a golf course and high price condos there. I hate that Beto O'Rourke supporting, vulgar old hippy.

 

[Hondo64d]

Really pretty country between Jacksboro and Albany. Weatherford, Breckenridge, Eastland Brownwood and Stephenville are also worth a look.

John

 

[lariat]

Really pretty country between Jacksboro and Albany. Weatherford, Breckenridge, Eastland Brownwood and Stephenville are also worth a look.

John

If you like grassfires every year. Don't know what it is about that area but holy hell there is ALWAYS a grass fire somewhere and some get massive.

 

[Hondo64d]

If you like grassfires every year.

Plenty of that where I’m at too. I ain’t skeered…

John

 

[Chickentoast]

I've been mapping, street-viewing, and watching videos of all the places you guys are proposing... TX is huge and very varied, but it does seem that corporate fast food and other garbage like wal-mart has basically destroyed all of the small town businesses. Most towns that were probably quaint, clean, and full of character, look (at least by what I've been able to see) to have been reduced to dirty and alcoholic shells of their former selves.

So I am leaning towards renting in an expensive douchebag-ridden area - gives us a jumping off point to try and get to know the surrounding few hours drive. But I can't stomach another leftist hellhole, so Austin is out completely. I'm hoping Westlake, Southlake, Flower Mound to Argyle, are at least inhabited by rino's, if not actual Americans. Close to horse boarding facilities and airport are also huge until we buy.

 

[TriggerJerk!]

Your aging yourself, I cant even remember that far back.

I do (sort of) remember one crazy (picnic) at a golf course where a pigtail wearing hippie sang country music.

Does that count?

Crap. Now you’ve aged all of us! Willie’s 4th of July picinic’s were “the thang” in the late 70’s.

 

[lariat]

I've been mapping, street-viewing, and watching videos of all the places you guys are proposing... TX is huge and very varied, but it does seem that corporate fast food and other garbage like wal-mart has basically destroyed all of the small town businesses. Most towns that were probably quaint, clean, and full of character, look (at least by what I've been able to see) to have been reduced to dirty and alcoholic shells of their former selves.

You found the truth. Lots of places that used to have the small businesses that made the communities in the small towns are gone because of walmart and the like. With Amazon now in play they are for sure never coming back. Many towns like the one I went to school in are totally different than the 70s and 80's - they are now inhabited by meth heads, illegals or are human trafficking waypoints. Or worse yet are run by liberals. Texas isn't what it used to be in my youth, but everyone seems to think that it still exists everywhere. It doesn't. The truth is that the South used to be just like Texas in that regard, and it has by and large gone the same way. Mayberry died a long time ago. The Texas you seek is now for sale in antique shops in all the washed-up towns in the form of doilies and Corning Ware from someone's grandmother to the working tools and Bible of the family patriarch. The genteel owners of those products are in the cemeteries, hardly anyone remembers who they were and no one cares.

If you ask me, Texas has lost its roots and lost its way. Things have changed and not for the better.

This explains it pretty nicely

 

[Steve_In_29]

At least Texas has character. I am in Arizona which is kind of like Texas without the flavor.

What’s funny is I run into people that try to have that big cowboy hat attitude except they are middle aged retired government workers who live in subdivisions.

Come out where I'm at, plenty of REAL cowboys here in AZ. I watch them drive cattle past my place on horseback. Plus when they do roundup they push the herd through the big wash that crosses my property.

And there's also lots of cowboy attitude among Texans whose only connection to a cow is buying steaks in the supermarket.

 

[TexPatriot]

Really pretty country between Jacksboro and Albany. Weatherford, Breckenridge, Eastland Brownwood and Stephenville are also worth a look.

John

If you are fortunate enough to relocate in the great state of Texas and those areas above OP, I would respectfully suggest you read up and learn it's history, geography etc. An excellent read is John Graves's Goodbye to a River which is an incredible journey down the Brazos River which runs through Palo Pinto Co.
You can get a feel of the country and it's occupants, clear back to when The People ruled it.

 

[Chickentoast]

You found the truth. Lots of places that used to have the small businesses that made the communities in the small towns are gone because of walmart and the like. With Amazon now in play they are for sure never coming back. Many towns like the one I went to school in are totally different than the 70s and 80's - they are now inhabited by meth heads, illegals or are human trafficking waypoints. Or worse yet are run by liberals. Texas isn't what it used to be in my youth, but everyone seems to think that it still exists everywhere. It doesn't. The truth is that the South used to be just like Texas in that regard, and it has by and large gone the same way. Mayberry died a long time ago. The Texas you seek is now for sale in antique shops in all the washed-up towns in the form of doilies and Corning Ware from someone's grandmother to the working tools and Bible of the family patriarch. The gentile owners of those products are in the cemeteries, hardly anyone remembers who they were and no one cares.

If you ask me, Texas has lost its roots and lost its way. Things have changed and not for the better.

This explains it pretty nicely

Same with Northern NH where I spent summers and holidays with grandparents. It was always poor, but always rich in character, strength, and integrity. If you got a deer, there was meat for those in the community who needed it, and if you were painting your house, people would always come help. Now it's sadly almost exclusively white trash. I bought the house from my grandparent's estate when they passed, because they felt it was wrong to protect it in a trust - unfair to others who might fairly bid on it. That was America. Some of us still feel it and try/want to live it, but we are a dying breed and the machine is against us.

It has to be a bottom up revival if we are to revive anything, and we can't do that if we're spread among commies and go-along to get-along types. So, I have to move, and want to find a place with like-minded folks to build and maintain community. If not possible, I'll live isolationist and buy a ranch in BFE.

 

[Seymour Fish]

A bit off the subject, But

When the televised music show, “Austin City Limits” went from Country and Western Swing to whatever they call rock music now, I knew Austin was going downhill FAST! The final nail, when, Lance Armstorng’s bike shop, Mellow Johnny’s, quit serving the local police.

What a cicksucker he was

 

[Major Wader]

If I was buying in Texas with your budget, I would be somewhere on or near Hwy 71 between El Campo and Bastrop. Columbus, TX still has a great small town feel, and is only an hour or so from Katy.

Some pretty areas up by Lake Conroe also. Anything 30 minutes outside 99 on the Northeast side of Houston is nice. Mild winters (usually) without the oppressive heat in the summer that keeps me from buying property in South Texas.

 

[Steve_In_29]

Looking for small town America anywhere within commuting distance of a major city is a lost cause.

They have either become bedroom communities full of rich people or tourist attractions. Both of which drive out most if not all of the original locals.

 

[Maggot]

Same with Northern NH where I spent summers and holidays with grandparents. It was always poor, but always rich in character, strength, and integrity. If you got a deer, there was meat for those in the community who needed it, and if you were painting your house, people would always come help. Now it's sadly almost exclusively white trash. I bought the house from my grandparent's estate when they passed, because they felt it was wrong to protect it in a trust - unfair to others who might fairly bid on it. That was America. Some of us still feel it and try/want to live it, but we are a dying breed and the machine is against us.

It has to be a bottom up revival if we are to revive anything, and we can't do that if we're spread among commies and go-along to get-along types. So, I have to move, and want to find a place with like-minded folks to build and maintain community. If not possible, I'll live isolationist and buy a ranch in BFE.

 

[Steve_In_29]

So it's a year later....any updates OP?

Never mind I see you gave one already.

 

[91Eunozs]

Thanks fellas, looks like a couple more trips are in order. I understand exactly what fdkay means by Exist. There was nothing to enjoy, or aspire to, no motivation. I thought I wanted 500 acres in Hill Country... now, I understand, why in hell would I want that - there is nothing there but Chicken Express, and the land is arid and homogeneous.

I want a community of Americans. I say regular people who care about a lot of the same things, including each other, and the community/couuntry itself - but according to today's society, my definition means incredibly intelligent, highly educated, independently successful, extreme right wing crazy people who only deal in what used to be known as facts and rational thought, and are not currupted by power or money. You know, Unicornville.

missed this the first time through…. You must have seen the water tower on your way through town with the New Braunfels high school mascot, right?

LOL

also:

 

[Chickentoast]

So it's a year later....any updates OP?

Start at post 156, 1 page back.

 

[Chickentoast]

missed this the first time through…. You had to see the water tower on your way through with the New Braunfels high school mascot, right?

LOL

View attachment 7819531


also:

I wish I was being witty! Didn't notice what it said on the water tower. Map says the only places I've been considering are the shitty parts. I have a consult tomorrow morning with a Dallas realtor.

 

[n2ishun]

Just remember how a good 1/2 of all texans are these days.
"All hat, no cattle".
It's a polite way to say "fake cowboys".

 

[Snuby642]

Crap. Now you’ve aged all of us! Willie’s 4th of July picinic’s were “the thang” in the late 70’s.

I'll go one better.
In 1978 or 1979 I drove a brand new six pack 4x4 truck owned by the USAF up there to the picnic .

It showed up on the fucking news.
I got back to base with a couple of the other guys there TDY at Kelly AFB working F-4 C&D we gave the gaurd and got called on the carpet for that one.

Asked why we didn't park it somewhere else I told them we got too drunk to drive so it stayed parked on the damn golf course that they flagged us onto.

Luckily someone important thought it was good pr and I didn't loose a stripe. And the fact a few other GI's got arrested for dui and etc. that weekend didn't hurt my case.

 

[Steve_In_29]

missed this the first time through…. You must have seen the water tower on your way through town with the New Braunfels high school mascot, right?

LOL

View attachment 7819534

also:

Is that mascot for real? If so it shows a serious dose of woke.

That map of red isn't all it seems. Despite all that red Trump only won TX by 6% which shows a lot of those red counties have TINY populations and are getting outvoted by the areas in and around the cities. It's just like CA, where despite the biggest part of the state land wise voting red, it is the smaller areas with their MUCH denser populations voting blue that control what goes on.

 

[Steve_In_29]

Sounds like you visited Phoenix.

If you want Norman Rockwell shit you have to go to the Midwest. Lots of older towns like that in Pennsylvania etc but the economy isn't great.

PA isn't the Midwest.

Having lived in PA decades ago, I can say most of those small towns were crappy then and I'm sure they haven't improved. As was mentioned, Walmart killed small town America as it dried up the local businesses.

 

[Steve_In_29]

Start at post 156, 1 page back.

Read it all, so basically no closer to picking a location and a move than you were a year ago.

Part of the problem I see is that you are looking at 1-4 million dollar properties while wanting to be in small town America. Your goals are mutually exclusive.

 

[Chickentoast]

Read it all, so basically no closer to picking a location and a move than you were a year ago.

Part of the problem I see is that you are looking at 1-4 million dollar properties while wanting to be in small town America. Your goals are mutually exclusive.

I'm moving by June 30. It got pushed a year due to biz happenings mostly spurred by the BS Rona gov't response and public hysteria.

Definitely disagree on mutual exclusivity. Plenty of places in NY and New England where that is still possible, and certainly possible in planned communities in MT, but those are for the old money retirement age people, with 5-10M buy-ins plus construction, etc. Dallas realtor said high 3's-10M would be fine for a 5-20 acre horse property with all the fixins on the north side of Grapevine Lake.

Alternatively, if you mean I'm spending too much to find that, then point me to where I can spend less, that isn't a shithole, and I'd gladly put the rest into night vision and ammo, maybe rebuild a WW2 tank and a few '65 Cobras.

 

[Seymour Fish]

I'm moving by June 30. It got pushed a year due to biz happenings mostly spurred by the BS Rona gov't response and public hysteria.

Definitely disagree on mutual exclusivity. Plenty of places in NY and New England where that is still possible, and certainly possible in planned communities in MT, but those are for the old money retirement age people, with 5-10M buy-ins plus construction, etc. Dallas realtor said high 3's-10M would be fine for a 5-20 acre horse property with all the fixins on the north side of Grapevine Lake.

Alternatively, if you mean I'm spending too much to find that, then point me to where I can spend less, that isn't a shithole, and I'd gladly put the rest into night vision and ammo, maybe rebuild a WW2 tank and a few '65 Cobras.

North end Morris Co. 400 acres and build a mansion, for 2 mil, guts and feathers

 

[impactaddict]

A bit off the subject, But

When the televised music show, “Austin City Limits” went from Country and Western Swing to whatever they call rock music now, I knew Austin was going downhill FAST! The final nail, when, Lance Armstorng’s bike shop, Mellow Johnny’s, quit serving the local police.

Oh please.. Tom Waits laid a steamer on that show back in 78

 

[impactaddict]

Is that mascot for real? If so it shows a serious dose of woke.

Super woke in 1928 when the mascot was chosen

 

[Chickentoast]

Super woke in 1928 when the mascot was chosen

Unicorns had balls back then. Now they are all gelded, in the schools no less.

 

[lariat]

I'm moving by June 30. It got pushed a year due to biz happenings mostly spurred by the BS Rona gov't response and public hysteria.

Definitely disagree on mutual exclusivity. Plenty of places in NY and New England where that is still possible, and certainly possible in planned communities in MT, but those are for the old money retirement age people, with 5-10M buy-ins plus construction, etc. Dallas realtor said high 3's-10M would be fine for a 5-20 acre horse property with all the fixins on the north side of Grapevine Lake.

Alternatively, if you mean I'm spending too much to find that, then point me to where I can spend less, that isn't a shithole, and I'd gladly put the rest into night vision and ammo, maybe rebuild a WW2 tank and a few '65 Cobras.

Did you just say $10M for 20acres?

 

[impactaddict]

Unicorns had balls back then. Now they are all gelded, in the schools no less.

Sorry you had such a crummy trip (opie's excluded). Central Tx BBQ is legit. The urban sprawl of Austin and San Antonio makes it difficult for smaller towns in the hill country to have an identity. It is certainly much different now than when I grew up here (Seguin) in the 80's & 90's.

The wife and I made a trip to Fredricksberg this weekend to visit with some friends. They moved there from Austin (previously out of state) and now they say "it finally feels like we moved to Texas". I think thats accurate when compared to Austin. We had a good time, but everyone "out" was from out of town. I have a childhood friend raising a family out there - he loves it. He says it's quieter (on weekdays) and has much more of a small town feel.

We live out toward Driftwood and its getting too crowded for my liking. Wasn't this way when we moved here 10 years ago. I was just looking at some property around the Comfot/Fredricksberg area. Acreage, undeveloped... Its a pipe dream now, because I don't have the wife on board, but maybe one day!

Have you considered the area of Texas between Houston and Austin. Brenham, Rockdale, etc. There is a monthly PRS match in Navasota and I swear, its some of the prettiest land in Texas. I believe Chuck Norris lives out there somewhere. Good luck on your search and keep us posted!!!

 

[Hondo64d]

Is that mascot for real? If so it shows a serious dose of woke.

That map of red isn't all it seems. Despite all that red Trump only won TX by 6% which shows a lot of those red counties have TINY populations and are getting outvoted by the areas in and around the cities. It's just like CA, where despite the biggest part of the state land wise voting red, it is the smaller areas with their MUCH denser populations voting blue that control what goes on.

Yep. It’s interesting to look at the nationwide election map broken down by county instead of state. Nearly all the major metropolitan areas are blue, with nearly everything else red.

John