There is a hefty sun burn tax in Texas. 100 degree weather for sometimes 30 straight days. May - Sept are all 90 degrees+ without fail. The winter is colder than the bay area.
I lived in both states and the weather in the Bay Area isn't enough to justify the heavy income tax, sales tax and cost of housing. It's great that it's in the 60s and 70s year round but with zero rain fall you got other cons making up for pros in that category. Sure Texas is hot and that is a downside but agreeing that the weather in the Bay Area is worth an insane amount of extra cash isn't correct.
If you have large housing needs (family/etc.) I can see that, but as a single person renting I didn't find the pricing difference large enough to be worth choosing Texas just for the housing savings. Paid about $700/mo to rent a 1-bd in Houston, vs $1100 to rent a nicer 1-bd in Santa Cruz, near the beach. Sure, that's almost $5k savings over a year in Houston, but you're not going to retire on an extra $5k. Well more like $4k savings overall once you take into account the extra electric bill I had in Houston, running the A/C for 7-8 months of the year.
The average property tax rate is 4x California's, though. On the other hand, the average property value is lower. How all those factors combine depends on your income/location/etc. The group that comes out worst is the middle class in cheaper areas, around 40th-70th percentile incomes. If you make mid 5 figures, and live in a $150k house, your tax situation would be better Bakersfield than in Houston.
For single-income household of two making $55k, the annual difference shakes out to about $500. Not an insignificant sum but also not a huge difference.
But your comparison is between Bakersfield, a medium-sized city whose largest employer is Kern County, and Houston, the world capital of energy and a major player in shipping, healthcare and aerospace.
Which city is more likely to actually pan out a $55k job for our hypothetical middle-class family? Houston (median income, $58k) or Bakersfield ($38k)? Where is that barely higher tax burden buying better schools? (I'll take any of Houston's suburbs on that count)
I grew up all over California but I've lived in Texas for the last nine years, I've seen the difference. Texas certainly isn't perfect but our cities are actually affordable.
The price of a house usually translates into how much the monthly/annual payments are for the house since it directly effects the demand curve. Up property tax prices and house values go correspondingly down. Up average incomes, house prices go up, etc. Decrease interest rates enough and housing prices can go up significantly.
and if you make 6 figures your income tax alone would make for a mortgage payment in Texas. Property Tax in Cali is also pretty messed up with people paying almost nothing because they inherited their home from their parents along with their tax rate from the 60s.
Housing costs in WA can't hold a candle to Texas. The median home price in King County (where Seattle is located, for those who are unaware) is $415,000. Median home price in Dallas County is just a tad under $200,000. To get that in King County, you have to be all the way down in Federal Way or Auburn, both of which are so far out you'll need a car (so you get to sit on IH-5 for days) and you might as well not even try to have a social life in Seattle.
If you want a house in or that has access to the trendy area of Seattle, be prepared to cough up anywhere from $300,000 to $600,000 (median is $619k but I assume some folks will buy a smaller house or one that needs a bunch of work to get the price down).
415k is median...federal way and auburn are still below that. You can do better than ok with $400k in Seattle if you are willing to go condo.
Texas has bad schools, high Crome, dumpster divers everywhere. Washington state is a first world country in comparison. Even some boondocks place like Spokane where houses still go for $150k compares well to Texas (though the tech jobs are all in Seattle).
My point was that "better than OK with $400k" will get you a mansion in Dallas' northern suburbs or a very nice rambler with a pool inside Dallas itself, not a condo with an $800/mo maintenance fee. I'm not bagging on condos, either, but not everyone wants to live in one, plus the better ones in Seattle are getting picky about who can buy. It floored me to see an ad for a condo saying "no dogs." (Who bans dogs in Seattle? That has to be a recipe for disaster.)
You're 100% right that you can find cheaper housing in Auburn, Federal Way (mind the gunshots), Everett, or even Spokane. The problem is that living in none of those places gets you the walkable, diverse lifestyle of being in Seattle.
Also, thanks for painting all Texas schools with such a broad brush. I graduated from a north Texas (public, non-charter) high school that is well-ranked, in addition to graduating from a state college for my CSCI degree. My siblings came after me through the same school, one as recently as 5 years ago, and none of us are drooling founts of stupidity who can barely sign our own names. It's almost as though different areas have different levels of achievement in their schools.
$800/month in maintenance fees? Are you joking or exaggerating, or are you trying to justify your McMansion preference with hyperbole?
My experience of Texas was all in Austin, maybe that is a lower end city compared to Dallas? Not sure, but I was amazed by the poverty versus the worst places I know of in Washington state (where I'm native).
$554/mo in HOA and they're currently running a $210/mo "special assessment" for some recent upgrades. Almost everything on Capitol Hill is in the same boat. A condo in Issaquah had $325/mo for the HOA and another $300/mo to put in a new pool. I'm not sure why condos in Puget Sound love their special assessments but they sure do.
HOAs in north Texas that aren't considered "luxury" wouldn't dream of asking for more than a few hundred bucks a year. $254k gets you a newly-renovated 4bed/2bath half a block from the Capitol Hill-like Bishop Arts district in Dallas, a straight shot into downtown, transit, and no HOA: http://www.redfin.com/TX/Dallas/720-Elsbeth-St-75208/home/30...
We're the inverse: I'm a native of Texas and moved to Washington State. Seattle is awesome but it's very, very expensive compared to where I came from. Seattle has a lot to offer that Dallas doesn't, like weather that isn't incredibly unbearable and politicians that aren't incredibly unthinking, and scenery that isn't incredibly uninteresting. Trying to compare the two on price? Not in the same ballpark.
(The worst place I know of in King County is Federal Way and Austin was worse than that? Damn, the place has gone downhill a LOT since I was there.)
Texas has simultaneously some of the best and worst schools everywhere, like most states. I spent two years in a CA high school and two years in a TX high school and the difference was worlds apart—the CA school was a joke. Falling apart, horrid teachers paid below the poverty line, huge drug and violence issues. All AP classes have been cut.
The Texas school, conversely, was a palace of education. Better in every way. Highly-paid teachers, actual funding for extracurriculars, buildings that weren't condemned. Four years of computer science classes.
Are there bad schools in Texas? Absolutely. But the fact is (unfair as it may be) that in the areas a software developer is likely to live, the schools are fantastic.
