Mike T.: You’re right – property taxes are much higher out here. But let’s look at the entire picture. I pay about $15k on a house valued at $750k. Brand-new spec house, bought 2 years ago, very good finishes, travertine down, hardwoods up, 3 car garage. Not too McMansiony, bright, energy-efficient, and I love coming home. The lot was about $300k for ~7500 sf; construction cost was about $115/sf for the house. Nice area near the galleria and the financial district. 8 minute drive to medical center (HUGE medical center – largest in the world). About 15 minutes coming home. I drive about 5000 miles a year, of which maybe half is to/from work. Public transit is poor.

I would compare my neighborhood with … well, there’s no direct comparison to L.A. It’s a mixed bag. My tiny neighborhood was developed in the 50s. Most older homes in my subdivision are around 1400 sf, tops. Some have been kept up, others not so much. Neighbors are ethnically and economically diverse. Not much crime in my area, in spite of living smack-dab in the city. Probably because there aren’t any low-rent apartments anywhere nearby. Plenty of good restaurants, good museums, some nice parks. Costco nearby.

Wages in my sector – anesthesiology – are higher than in SoCal. Maybe 20% higher? Medicine in general pays better here than in CA.

And no state income tax! I would have paid $23k in CA income taxes last year. Instead I paid zero. Plus, my property taxes are deductible from my federal taxes, but state income tax would not have been deductible, because of AMT. Every year I practice in Texas means another year of college expenses for one of my kids, tucked away in the bank.

TX state government is much more “laissez-faire” than CA. Much less of a safety net out here. But also no special property tax levy to protect, say, the Santa Monica mountains because it’s someone’s pet cause.

Houston is, well, growing on me. It’s a little boring, but “a good place to raise kids”. The people are friendly, although definitely more religious and more conservative in general than in SoCal. The city is ethnically very diverse. That was not always true, and many white folks, particularly older ones, are bent out of shape about how things have changed. There is old money, as well as new, and there are snobs here. My kids are in a very good private school, and the fortunes there compare with the fortunes of Beverly Hills. Not my cup of tea, but I had to put my kids in private school because the public schools I am zoned to aren’t great. There are a few excellent public schools in town, but those areas are very pricey (by Houston standards).

Here’s a nice place (on a busy street, so location discount applies) in a nice area not far from mine. Excellent elementary school, so-so middle school, very good high school.

http://search.har.com/engine/4003-Dumbarton-St-Houston-TX-77025_HAR12008314.htm

If you’re willing to drive, Sugar Land and Siena Plantation are master-planned communities, still ethnically diverse (Siena Plantation less so, I think), with very good schools. Considerably cheaper, although they have a high end as well.

More of the big picture:

I was out in the yard today and was dripping with sweat after five minutes. The climate, 4-5 months out of the year, is awful. The rest of the year is very nice. Late fall and most of spring are just gorgeous. It rarely freezes or snows. Lots of rain – about 54 inches a year. We are neck-and-neck with SoCal for worst air quality in the U.S., largely because of refineries and lax oversight from the state.

Our pitiful beaches are an hour away, and cannot begin to compare with SoCal beaches. No mountains. Dead flat. But camping, kayaking, bicycling opportunities are no more than an hour away. Austin is 2 1/2 hours away.

Unemployment is lower in Houston than in L.A. by a long shot. State-wide, it was 8.2% in June. Compare that to 12.2% in L.A. county in June! The oil industry continues to bubble along, health care is doing well, housing stumbled a little but seems to be recovering (no real bubble here, since there’s an endless supply of land, and no natural barriers to growth).

Would I move back to L.A.? Woudl I move to San Diego? Sure, if I made two or three times what I do now! I can’t see spending insane amounts of money on a shack. Like short sale #2 above – an $850k hovel. In keeping with DHB’s time-tested advice about not spending more than 3x your yearly income on a house, I could afford a “million-dollar house” (whatever THAT is) if I moved back to L.A. It wouldn’t feel like a million dollar house, though. It would likely be a tarted-up shack. Whatever increased happiness I would have from being in SoCal would be more than offset by the increased anxiety from not being able to save for a decent retirement, and not being able to save for my kids’ college, and worrying about future state/federal income tax changes, and changes in the social security retirement age, and being stuck in traffic for an extra five to ten hours per week, and on and on and on. I’m sure that if I had been in SoCal when I started as an anesthesiologist, I’d have been sucked into the housing bubble, and would not have contributed to my retirement accounts to the full extent possible, so I’d probably be tearing my hair out now. But I’d have granite countertops!

All in all, life in Houston is pretty good, if you look at the big picture. Not just for me, but for a lot of folks.

If real estate continues to slump in L.A., and physician incomes hold steady, I might move back, but I’m not counting on it. If I do move back, I’ll rent for several years.

Can you say “YEEE HAAAAW”?
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Unbelievably bigoted comment.