38 years ago, I chose Texas as the place where I wanted to live and create businesses. In the intervening time, the state has boomed, one of the strongest economies in the world. People continue to move here, especially from the northeast and Pacific Coast, as well as from nations around the world. Houston is one of the most diverse cities in America, with something like forty different languages spoken. Vietnamese is the third most common language there, after English and Spanish.
I love cities, the countryside, and travel. I have been to 49 states, 19 of the 31 Mexican states, and over 40 other countries. I grew up near Indianapolis and lived at least two years each in Chicago, New York, and St. Louis, all cities I love. I have lived forty of my sixty-eight years in Texas, two in Dallas, thirty-five in the Austin area, and now three in a tiny historic railroad town, Flatonia, population about 1400. I have accumulated at least a month in almost every major American city, from Miami to Seattle, Boston to San Diego. Yet Texas and its cities are my favorites.
I am often asked about the various parts and cities of the state, about the best places to live and visit. Here I give my quick review. But first, a caveat: each of us is constrained by leanings and biases, and I am no exception. I try to be objective and analytical, but this is further complicated by the fact that each of us is different, with different preferences, lifestyles, goals, values, and dreams. I have tried to reflect at least some of the preferences you might have.
First, the State of Texas
In all my travels, there are few places I would rather live than Texas. And none of them could I afford. So for many reasons this is the place for me.
Speaking strictly for myself, I love Texas skies, Texas people, Texas opportunities, the diverse landscape from deserts to swamps to beaches, pine forests to sagebrush, the moderate winter weather, the enormous backroad system for endless exploring, the dynamic and fascinating cities, the relatively low taxes and cost of living, and the natural wonders including so many birds and animals. I do not like the heat of the long summers, and the traffic situation in many cities is intolerable for anyone in a hurry in life. Every place has pros and cons; this place has the best net plus for me.
For most of my friends and readers, the most interesting of these are the opportunities, paired with the low costs and all the other benefits.
Texas has an incredibly strong economy. It is a “business-friendly” state in many important ways. It is entrepreneurial; the culture encourages startups.
Texas is extremely diverse, one of the least white states in the nation. We have a long history of accepting immigrants from around the world, in part because of the global nature of the oil and gas industry, with Houston as a capital. Yet the state has morphed from making its money on cattle to petroleum to high tech, and continues to evolve.
Texas is also a “people-friendly” state. Where I live, and in other parts, drivers wave at passing strangers. Fast food restaurants ask how your meal was.
Texas people are fundamentally open, sharing, welcoming, and tolerant. It is one of the better places to be an eccentric like myself. Anyone who works hard and is honest will be respected, sooner or later. Politically, we have every stripe – the same is true of religion and nationality, sexual preference, and the many other ways that we all differ as individuals.
There is something real, something authentic, about most Texans. Down to earth. Our cities can get caught up in the latest fads and fashions, but you never have to drive more than a half hour or so to reach old-school America, with low crime, tight families, relatively uncontentious communities, dance halls, and diners where they call you “hon.”
Though, as the second most populous state, with almost 30 million people, we have everything imaginable, from saints to serial killers.
I doubt I must mention that you must have a car in Texas. A few survive without, but they are very, very few. Even those living in the hearts of our cities often have a car in a garage. This is the norm in the United States. Even in Chicago, which has a pervasive bus, subway, elevated, and commuter rail system, car ownership is high. Texas is a big state, and you need a car to see all its wonders. If you hate driving, even on empty or easy roads, then you probably should not move here.
And, for what it’s worth, you don’t have to own a gun in Texas. I have never owned one and do not plan to, and nobody cares. The state offers a substantial amount of personal freedom.
So maybe Texas is a good place for you to move, like over a million other Americans have in recent years. So where to? Urban or rural? Most immigrants move to suburban or the further-out exurban areas of the state, surrounding the large cities. The draw is the large city, with its jobs and amenities. But which metropolitan area, which I will call a “city?” Each of our metropolitan areas has its own personality.
Austin
Austin is the superstar of Texas, the fastest growing metro area of over one million population in the United States, drawing global attention – and global companies. Over the last forty years, Austin has morphed from a medium-sized state capital and university town into a major high tech center. Apple’s largest employment center outside Silicon Valley is in Austin. Oracle, Google, Amazon, and Facebook have major operations there. Big organizations from the US Army to General Motors, Home Depot, and Walmart have created research and technology centers around the city.
Austin is also a delightful city. On the west side are hills and a string of accessible lakes. It is a great place for dogs, walks, and nature. It is also a cultural center, with a great symphony hall and continuous events at the several universities, led by the University of Texas’s main campus. (It is not, however, much of a museum city.)
Austin is a near-ideal city for young, affluent software engineers and the like. Jobs are plentiful, pay is high, and the amenities for young singles and couples are everywhere, from trendy restaurants, bars, and shops to jogging trails.
But Austin is by far the most expensive city in the state, with zooming housing prices. Inside the city limits, it would be hard for most families to buy a house, though prices may still seem reasonable to someone moving here from New York or California, as many do.
The edges of the metro area are more family friendly. All around the city are booming residential areas: Hutto, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Bastrop, Manor, Elgin, Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs, Driftwood, and many others. Further out, into the “hill country” west of the city, Marble Falls, Burnet, Horseshoe Bay, Fredericksburg, and Llano are beautiful country towns.
Outside of high housing prices, the largest negatives to Austin are the traffic, among the worst in the nation for a city of its size, and increasing issues with crime and homelessness in parts of the city (but not in the suburbs). For travelers, one can fly to more places from Dallas-Ft. Worth or Houston, though Austin continues to add more domestic and international routes.
Nevertheless, Austin has huge momentum. I believe it will continue to grow at a rapid rate for many years to come. With 2.17 million people in 2018, Austin is the 30th largest metropolitan area in the United States. My own forecast is that it will have at least 3.4 million people in 2040, ranking 23rd, but there is a chance it could be closer to 4 million.
There is also a good chance that by then, Austin and San Antonio (90 miles away) will have grown together, creating a megalopolis of 7 to 8 million population. (In which case the intervening cities of San Marcos and New Braunfels will have become central to the urbanized area.)
For the right person at the right stage of their life, Austin is hard to beat. I love the city.
Dallas-Fort Worth
The Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area is the most populous in Texas, with 7.5 million, 4th largest in the nation. In 2040, I expect it to have at least 10.6 million, displacing Chicago from the 3rd rank. (If one uses the larger “Combined Statistical Area” definitions of urban areas, Washington-Baltimore could leap ahead of it by then, with San Francisco-San Jose right behind.)
“DFW” is also a business powerhouse, with a diversified industrial mix that bodes well for the economic future of the metro area. More giant corporations have moved to DFW than any other city: American Airlines, JC Penney. McKesson, ExxonMobil, and Toyota USA among them. The advantages of affordable housing, sometimes shorter commutes, a huge global airport, and low taxes make DFW an ideal location for those companies fleeing high-cost locations like New York City.
Given the mix of job opportunities and reasonable costs of living, DFW is a great place to raise a family, as millions do.
To fully understand DFW, one must understand that it is a true “twin cities.” And those two cities are quite different.
Fort Worth was at first a larger town, focused on its function as a huge cattle, railroad, and meatpacking center. The Fort Worth Stockyards is still a fun place to spend the day. Over time, Dallas became bigger – and “flashier,” a major center for fashion and innovation (such as Texas Instruments).
The two cities had little use for each other until Texas Instruments’ former leader and Dallas Mayor Erik Jonsson convinced them to go together to build a giant airport midway between the two cities, intended to replace the two older airports that each city maintained. DFW airport opened in 1973, and American Airlines moved their headquarters from New York City a few years later.
The area between the two cities, north and south of the airport, has since shown explosive growth, including Arlington and Irving, full of amusement parks and sports stadia. There are numerous lakes around the edges of the metro area.
Dallas has in recent years upped its museum game and has outstanding performing arts. Fort Worth had a head start in museums and stands alongside Houston as the best museum city in the state. Dallas has spectacular new architecture; Fort Worth stands out for its traditional and art deco architecture. Both downtowns, dead after 5 PM forty years ago, are now rebounding, with people moving in.
Dallas is a great city for professional sports, nightlife, and shopping of all types.
While Dallas is energetic and energizing, I have to give first place to Fort Worth. Fort Worth has many beautiful neighborhoods, an active University scene, a very nice historic downtown, beautiful homes, a more laid-back atmosphere, the lightest traffic of any big Texas city, and very reasonable housing prices. I am a history lover – so Fort Worth, the most historic of the big cities alongside San Antonio, has great appeal to me.
When one adds the benefit of being within an hour of all of Dallas’s many amenities, Fort Worth is hard to beat. The undeveloped areas around downtown, particularly to the south, promise the potential to become another “East Austin,” a formerly poor and overlooked area that has in a few short years become one of the most rapidly building and growing places in the nation.
Houston
Houston is the most muscular city in Texas. Not only are the city limits huge (unlike the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth), but it is an industrial powerhouse not unlike Chicago, with giant oil refineries and chemical plants stretching eastward from the city. The port of Houston with its access to the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most important in the nation, handling thousands of containers, automobiles, and other products.
With major strengths in energy (oil and gas) and in healthcare (with one of the world’s largest and best hospital complexes), Houston has drawn immigrants from all over the world. Something like forty different languages are spoken at home in the Houston area.
DFW has lakes, but Houston is near the Gulf. The beautiful historic beach and port city of Galveston is just minutes away from Downtown Houston.
Houston is probably the most “Southern” city in the state, with warm weather year-round, high humidity, well-watered profuse vegetation, a kinship with New Orleans, and a large black population (all the Texas cities have large Hispanic populations).
Houston also has an incredible arts, opera, symphony, and museum scene – taken together, the best in the state. It is also the best city for twentieth century architecture. The city has always emphasized art and design and contains some masterworks of modern architecture.
Like Dallas, Houston has plenty of professional sports, beautiful parks, outstanding restaurants, and excellent airport service.
Above all else, the Houston metro is probably the best value in the state for housing. Given all the amenities offered by Houston and the Gulf, this metro is one of the best in America, especially if you want a large home and a happy family. And more especially if the industry you are in or want to join is in Houston.
Both Houston and DFW seem to get overlooked in the national publicity attended exploding Austin. Yet they are far larger metros, with more things to see and do, and much better values for most people. In those races to the top of the largest metros list, Houston will be right behind DFW, probably 4th largest by 2040.
San Antonio
San Antonio is in many ways my favorite city in the state. For decades, it grew more slowly than the cities described above, but in the last 15-20 years, things have really accelerated in old San Antonio, the most historic city in the state.
Like Austin, just to the west (and north) is the beautiful Texas hill country. Nature is right outside town.
But what I really love about the city is its color, energy, and history, a result of San Antonio being (now and in the past) a largely Hispanic city. The standards of hospitality and friendliness in hotels, restaurants, and on the streets cannot be beat.
San Antonio has several good universities, great museums, the delightful River Walk downtown, and plenty of historic architecture including a chain of old Spanish Missions including the Alamo. With amusement parks and activities for children galore, I cannot think of a better place in America for families.
Life is relatively easy in San Antonio, laid-back. Traffic is lighter than in Austin, Dallas, or Houston, and housing prices are toward the bottom end of the range in the state’s big cities. Housing ranges from a large stock of historic homes to rambling hilltop houses with great views.
The restaurant scene is great in every Texas city, but you won’t find better Mexican and Tex-Mex food anywhere in America than in San Antonio.
Like Fort Worth, San Antonio has vast expanses of developable land within a stone’s throw of the exquisite, historic downtown and River Walk.
Like the other cities, there are plenty of surrounding smaller communities with great appeal. Boerne (pronounced “Burnie”) and New Braunfels are two of my personal favorites.
All of these cities make great long-weekend trips for travelers, but San Antonio has the nicest downtown for tourism, the most differentiated experiences, and a great airport a few minutes from downtown. San Antonio is one of the few places in Texas where you don’t need a rental car if you don’t want one, given that there is so much to see and do within walking distance of downtown. So even if you don’t move to Texas, at least visit San Antonio!
Other Texas Cities and the Countryside
Texas contains a multitude of smaller cities for those who prefer little or no traffic and an even easier, less-hectic life. Corpus Christi is a beautiful city with the beach nearby, the Rio Grande Valley is warm all year, Victoria is a fine smaller city near the Gulf, San Angelo is a sweet little town off by itself in the old West, El Paso is a stunning beauty more isolated than any other US city its size (and with more sunshine per year), Waco – midway between Austin and DFW – is growing, northeast Texas around Longview and Tyler has great enthusiasm … and many others.
The state has a great variety of small, historic towns which are centers for artists and creative types, including Hico, Round Top, Wimberley (near Austin), and Fredericksburg and Kerrville in the Texas hill country.
And if you really want to get away from things, and sleep with the cows and chickens, the state is overwhelmingly farm and ranch land, full of small towns like historic Flatonia where I live now. At the same time, you can have a life like that less than an hour away from any of the big cities listed above, perhaps giving you “the best of both worlds.”
Conclusions
Texas is a great place to live. For singles, young families, and even us oldsters. The options are diverse, each region of the state and each city with its own personality and style. We welcome all comers, especially if you have energy and high hopes for yourself and your family. You will find few places with such diversity of races, political and religious beliefs, and normalcies and eccentricities. The beauty of nature is always just a short drive away. You can live the life you want. Jobs are going unfilled, startup companies are founded daily, and the costs of housing, taxes, and living in general make the state a bargain.
If I were starting all over again and looking more to the future than to the recent past, the cities I would most watch are Fort Worth and San Antonio – perhaps the “hidden gems” of this wonderful state. (A few of my favorite places outside of the big cities are pictured below.)
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