I just moved to East Texas 2 years ago, small town close to the Longview area, from South Florida, because of the state of the politics in Florida at the time, because Texas is much cheaper to live in, and because this is where I am going to retire. I will not go into the political stuff, but you cannot buy land is South Florida anymore, at least not for a reasonable price, and I like land. I had a one acre property in the Homestead area, and that is a huge piece of land by South Florida standards. Anyways, I sold my 3,000 square foot house with a 2 car garage in Florida, and bought a 4,000 square foot house on 27 acres with a 3 car garage, and another 4 garage spaces in a steel building for less than what I sold my Florida house. The house was a fixer upper, so eventually I ended up spending more on it than what my house in Florida was worth, but not by much.
Property taxes here are a LOT less than what they are in South Florida, I least I pay less for this much bigger house with a TON more land that what I used to pay for my house in Florida. The one thing people that look at the "property taxes by county" do not realize is that housing is Texas is usually cheaper than in a lot of the USA. So, if you have 2 identical houses on an identical piece of land, one in South Florida and one in Texas, even if the percentage you are paying on the value of your property is slightly higher, you will be paying a lot less in Texas as the value of your home will be a lot less in Texas. The house I sold in Florida, if I could move it here would be worth half of what it was in South Florida, so even if your tax rate is a little higher, you will probably still be paying half of what you pay in Florida for the same property. Another fallacy of these "property tax by county" percentage rate is that it really depend on your local property tax appraiser, and what exemptions you can get. Here in this county, when you sell or buy a property the local tax appraiser does not have any clue what you sold or bought your property for, and you as a seller or a buyer are under no obligation to tell them. So, they just assume that the property is what it was when it was built or when it was last sold. You could have done a myriad of improvements and additions to raise the value of your property, and they have no clue. In Florida when you sell your home, the state immediately gets informed of what the selling price was and they immediately raise the property taxes on the new owner (as the property has surely gone up in value since you bought it 10-20-30 years ago), sometimes to 3-4-5 or even to 10 times what it used to be. You as a buyer have no clue, when you buy a house in South Florida, what your new taxes will be. They will just assess a value on it, from the amount you paid, and you are screwed. I pay a little over $3000 a year for my house in property taxes, my business partner who lives in South Florida (Davie area) with a similar sized house on 1 acre pays over $13,000 a year in property taxes. When he went to the tax appraiser to complain they told him that he was paying too little! Under the law, as the house is his residence, they cannot raise his property taxes more than 2% a year, which they dutifully do, but they told him that as soon as that house gets sold again, the new owner will likely be paying over $20,000 a year.
Getting off the taxes thing, I have found that people here are extremely friendly, welcoming and cordial, compared to South Florida. No one bothers me here, electricity is cheaper than in South Florida, insurance for your home is waaaay cheaper, auto insurance is waaay cheaper. Violent crime is almost none existent. The only thing I think is a bit more expensive is food. What is a LOT more expensive is getting people to work on your property, if you can find them. The heat-A/C guy was super cheap in Florida compared to here, anyone that you need to come and do some work on your property is super expensive, again if you can even find someone willing to work. It seems that if you do not have at least a $10,000 job, no one is willing to even consider working on your home.
Negatives are that there is very little in the way of "night life here", you like to party, this area is not for you. Restaurants and places to go are a LOT less than is South Florida, entertainment here is minimal compared to South Florida, but those things at my age are no longer important...
All in all it was a positive move for me, and my wife loves it. So, happy wife, happy life...
