There are many big differences between CA and TX.  One which is currently very significant is the State budget.  TX has balanced its budget, reduced the size of the budget, made its rainy day fund larger, and used a minimum of budget tricks.  Oh, and Texas HAS a budget already.  CA is typically much later in getting a budget.

Balancing the TX budget was made easier by not having a state income tax.  And of course, it was also made easier by not having a housing bubble that provided more consumer cash than the state’s largest employer, and a subsequent crash.

For my work, I have taken close looks at the financial situations of both state governments.  CA is in a much tougher position.  In my opinion, CA will have much worse problems not only in this recession, but probably at least through 2012. 

p://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/12644/
“AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today signed Senate Bill 1 into law, providing a balanced budget that spends $1.6 billion less in general revenue than the previous biennium. The budget funds key priorities from higher education and job creation to border security. The governor also used his line-item veto power to reduce the two-year budget by $97.2 million in general revenue and $288.9 million from all funding sources.

“The Legislature has done a commendable job in reducing the general revenue appropriation to live within the Comptroller’s revenue estimate issued in January, cutting general revenue spending by $1.6 billion,” Gov. Perry said. “It is particularly noteworthy lawmakers balanced the budget without using the state’s Rainy Day Fund and provided a tax cut to 40,000 small businesses.”

The budget signed by Gov. Perry decreases general revenue spending by $1.6 billion, or 1.9 percent, compared to the current biennium, while still maintaining funding for key areas such as economic development, education and public safety. This decrease in spending has only occurred once since World War II.

This 2010-11 budget continues several key investments, including water infrastructure and border security, which are essential to the growth and security of the state; and funding for the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund, which allow the state to maintain a competitive business climate, invest in new technologies and attract world class researchers to the state’s institutions of higher education. The budget also makes a significant increase in funding for financial aid for higher education as well as the Skills Development Fund, which are critical to helping more Texans realize the dream of a college education, and ensuring the state has an educated and trained workforce to compete in the global marketplace.

A+dditionally, the Legislature left the state’s Rainy Day Fund untouched; the fund is projected to grow to $9 billion by the end of the 2010-11 biennium. Lawmakers also took steps to reduce diversions from the State Highway Fund, providing an additional $378 million for road construction and maintenance, and expanded highway and debt service payment line items in the Texas Department of Transportation budget for greater transparency. “

How’s the weather over there? Is it bearable?

reason - 25 June 2009 05:04 AM

How’s the weather over there? Is it bearable?

It has been hot for about a week, with highs in the high 90s.  At night, about 75.

I was raised in the South and it’s not that bad.  There is especially a lot of morning cloudiness.  This isn’t like being in Palm Springs in summer when it is starkly bright a few minutes after sunrise. 

People jog and play soccer or basketball in this weather, mostly in the evenings around 7 or 8 pm.  Our dog has slowly adapted and can go running with us at night.

We recently replaced an original equipment air conditioner which was decades old.  The new one is better and more efficient.  The house has both a window unit in the master, and central air.  It’s nice not to have to cool the entire house when you are only in one room for 8 hours. 

I’ve noticed how different our two cars are in really hot weather.  If parked outside while shopping, the Mercedes starts out cooler, and cools down much faster than the 1993 Honda.

MalibuRenter - 26 June 2009 12:44 PM

reason - 25 June 2009 05:04 AM

How’s the weather over there? Is it bearable?

It has been hot for about a week, with highs in the high 90s.  At night, about 75.

I was raised in the South and it’s not that bad.  There is especially a lot of morning cloudiness.  This isn’t like being in Palm Springs in summer when it is starkly bright a few minutes after sunrise. 

People jog and play soccer or basketball in this weather, mostly in the evenings around 7 or 8 pm.  Our dog has slowly adapted and can go running with us at night.

We recently replaced an original equipment air conditioner which was decades old.  The new one is better and more efficient.  The house has both a window unit in the master, and central air.  It’s nice not to have to cool the entire house when you are only in one room for 8 hours. 

I’ve noticed how different our two cars are in really hot weather.  If parked outside while shopping, the Mercedes starts out cooler, and cools down much faster than the 1993 Honda.

Yeah, it’s beginning to get hot here too in Orange Co.

“As long as you’re here, you might as well eat”

Texans have a much less conflicted relationship with food.  They eat for taste, and often quantity.  Not so much for calories or perceived healthiness. 

The portions are usually bigger here, with some moderately priced places serving Arnie Morton-sized portions.  My wife and I are usually splitting entrees here.  A couple of times we have split an entree and also taken part of it home.

Personal responsibility and risk are a bit different here.

There are no helmet laws for motorcyclists.  Most people don’t wear them.

I have also seen numerous streams and ponds in urban areas that are deep enough to drown a completely wasted alcoholic or a chihuahua who can’t swim.  No fences or warning signs.  That would be different in CA.

Regular pools have fences in both states.

MalibuRenter - 01 July 2009 03:55 AM

“As long as you’re here, you might as well eat”

Texans have a much less conflicted relationship with food.  They eat for taste, and often quantity.  Not so much for calories or perceived healthiness. 

The portions are usually bigger here, with some moderately priced places serving Arnie Morton-sized portions.  My wife and I are usually splitting entrees here.  A couple of times we have split an entree and also taken part of it home.

I did remember. The restaurants were very generous with the food. I also remember that the patrons were more boisterous and loud as compare to Californians.

I understand that you can carry a firearm in Tx? Have you given it some thoughts? The few days I was there. One late night, I was driving in my rental on a stretch of 2 lanes road. The gasoline was running low. There were no street lights and it was pitch dark. It seemed like I was in the woods. I kept driving and driving but there was nothing in sight. I thought to myself, “My God, if I break down here. I am either going to get robbed or killed.” There was no way the cops would come in time. Then as I was thinking that, I saw a spec of light at the end of the road. For some reason, in the darkness. The spec of light seemed near. But I must have drove for 15 minutes. Finally, I reached it. It was a freaking gas station! Let me tell you. When they say that Tx is a big country. They weren’t kidding. After that experience, I can see why having a firearm is a good idea. What is the state law regarding concealed weapons?

reason - 04 July 2009 07:29 AM

I understand that you can carry a firearm in Tx? Have you given it some thoughts? The few days I was there. One late night, I was driving in my rental on a stretch of 2 lanes road. The gasoline was running low. There were no street lights and it was pitch dark. It seemed like I was in the woods. I kept driving and driving but there was nothing in sight. I thought to myself, “My God, if I break down here. I am either going to get robbed or killed.” There was no way the cops would come in time. Then as I was thinking that, I saw a spec of light at the end of the road. For some reason, in the darkness. The spec of light seemed near. But I must have drove for 15 minutes. Finally, I reached it. It was a freaking gas station! Let me tell you. When they say that Tx is a big country. They weren’t kidding. After that experience, I can see why having a firearm is a good idea. What is the state law regarding concealed weapons?

I think it’s pretty easy to get a concealed weapons permit in Texas like in Nevada you need to take a 4 week training course and pass a background check to get a concealed weapons permit.

reason - 04 July 2009 07:29 AM

I understand that you can carry a firearm in Tx? Have you given it some thoughts? The few days I was there. One late night, I was driving in my rental on a stretch of 2 lanes road. The gasoline was running low. There were no street lights and it was pitch dark. It seemed like I was in the woods. I kept driving and driving but there was nothing in sight. I thought to myself, “My God, if I break down here. I am either going to get robbed or killed.” There was no way the cops would come in time. Then as I was thinking that, I saw a spec of light at the end of the road. For some reason, in the darkness. The spec of light seemed near. But I must have drove for 15 minutes. Finally, I reached it. It was a freaking gas station! Let me tell you. When they say that Tx is a big country. They weren’t kidding. After that experience, I can see why having a firearm is a good idea. What is the state law regarding concealed weapons?

I’d lay pretty good odds that if you DID run out of gas on that lonely highway, the first or second car to pass would have stopped and offered to assist.  (Women driving alone would be excused from this expected courtesy.)  Can you say the same for all of us out here in California?

Hey Malibu Renter-
Original Texan here! Lived there for 40 years. I still go back and visit my mom once a year. I miss the food, Half Price Books and Dillards! Let me know if you need any info. I lived in the DFW area for most of those years.

reason - 04 July 2009 07:29 AM

I understand that you can carry a firearm in Tx? Have you given it some thoughts? The few days I was there. One late night, I was driving in my rental on a stretch of 2 lanes road. The gasoline was running low. There were no street lights and it was pitch dark. It seemed like I was in the woods. I kept driving and driving but there was nothing in sight. I thought to myself, “My God, if I break down here. I am either going to get robbed or killed.” There was no way the cops would come in time. Then as I was thinking that, I saw a spec of light at the end of the road. For some reason, in the darkness. The spec of light seemed near. But I must have drove for 15 minutes. Finally, I reached it. It was a freaking gas station! Let me tell you. When they say that Tx is a big country. They weren’t kidding. After that experience, I can see why having a firearm is a good idea. What is the state law regarding concealed weapons?

I am not a hunter, even though I grew up in the South and knew quite a few people who hunted deer.  I don’‘t have gun, but it doesn’t seem at all odd to me.  It seems odd and threatening to many CA liberals.  In TX, you might very well find your democratic representative to state senate has a stuffed deer mounted in his house.  It is not that rare to find them in offices here.  Quite common to find them in certain kinds of bars.

There is a very good book on TX gun laws which I have seen an assortment of places, http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Gun-Owners-Guide-Fifth/dp/1889632090

I personally have not viewed places with almost no one living there as risky for being killed.  Very rural places are often low murder rate locales.  However, your chances of dying from something like an auto accident where it takes a long time to get help or get to a hospital can go way up.

springmom - 05 July 2009 05:19 AM

Hey Malibu Renter-
Original Texan here! Lived there for 40 years. I still go back and visit my mom once a year. I miss the food, Half Price Books and Dillards! Let me know if you need any info. I lived in the DFW area for most of those years.

I am still looking for some good hills to go hiking on that aren’t 20 miles outside of town.

The high end in Dallas is crashing.  There are even short sales.

I live just outside of the very expensive part of Dallas.  Two blocks and I’m there.  I’ve noticed more for sale signs in the two months I’ve been here.  I’ve also noticed reductions.  Here are three that attracted my attention.

“:5912 AVERILL WAY, Dallas, TX 75225** 
Neighborhood: North Dallas   School District: DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Beds:    6   Type:    SFR   Sq. Ft.:    10,395   Lot Size:    24,829 Sq. Ft.    MLS #:    11063168
Baths:    9/1   Built:    2006   $/Sq.Ft.:  $173   List Date:    08/15/08

Has been approved for short sale! Gorgeous drive-up with fabulous trees and tucked-away location. Large 2-story entry with fireplace, winding stairs. Vaulted ceiling in living room with great windows, two-story library with fireplace overlooking private backyard retreat with pool, spa, pond. Wonderful master suite with sitting room, upper loft office or sitting area, all viewing backyard. Room for expansion on 3rd floor. Completely renovated. 

Price Reduced: 11/11/08—$2,850,000 to $2,495,000
Price Reduced: 12/01/08—$2,495,000 to $2,295,000
Price Reduced: 12/18/08—$2,295,000 to $1,995,000
Price Increased: 01/05/09—$1,995,000 to $2,295,000
Price Reduced: 06/04/09—$1,999,000 to $1,800,000”

27% off initial list price, now a short sale, still nobody buying.

Example 2:

“9401 MEADOWBROOK DRIVE, Dallas, TX 75220** 
Neighborhood: Preston Hollow   School District: DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Beds:    4   Type:    SFR   Sq. Ft.:    3,519   Lot Size:    1.0 Acres   MLS #:    11079314
Baths:    3/0   Built:    1935   $/Sq.Ft.:  $681   List Date:    09/19/08

One of the last remaining 1+ acre sites in the heart of prestigious old preston hollow. Priced at lot value. This elegant estate property has 285’ frontage across meadowbrook. A very private property with only views of mature trees and green landscaping. The property’s exemplary aesthetics are very conducive for an architect to design an important estate home.

Price Reduced: 11/18/08—$3,100,000 to $2,950,000
Price Reduced: 12/02/08—$2,950,000 to $2,600,000
Price Reduced: 02/23/09—$2,600,000 to $2,450,000
Price Reduced: 06/02/09—$2,450,000 to $2,397,500”

Perhaps lot value is falling here?  There are a lot of recently replaced or redone mansions.  There are also a good number of “build to suit” lots owned by builders who flattened the prior homes and left nothing but lawn.

Example 3

5556 FALLS ROAD, Dallas, TX 75220** 
Neighborhood: Preston Hollow   School District: DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Beds:    4   Type:    SFR   Sq. Ft.:    5,167   Lot Size:    29,621 Sq. Ft.    MLS #:    11052199
Baths:    4/1   Built:    2004   $/Sq.Ft.:  $309   List Date:    07/29/08

Description
Beautiful completely renovated stone & brick home on .68 acre corner lot. Large formals. Wonderful kitchen with large granite island that opens to breakfast room & family room that overlooks patio & pool. Master suite with fp & wall of windows with views of pool & lush backyard. Office off master. Expansive library. Upstairs room can be used as playroom or 2nd master. Original structure built 1949.

Price Reduced: 09/15/08—$2,500,000 to $1,980,000
Price Reduced: 11/18/08—$1,980,000 to $1,795,000
Price Reduced: 01/21/09—$1,795,000 to $1,695,000
Price Reduced: 04/24/09—$1,695,000 to $1,595,000”

27% off.

By the way, Redfin isn’t active here.  ziprealty seems to be the best for having current data and useful search criteria.

MalibuRenter - 05 July 2009 07:35 PM

springmom - 05 July 2009 05:19 AM

Hey Malibu Renter-
Original Texan here! Lived there for 40 years. I still go back and visit my mom once a year. I miss the food, Half Price Books and Dillards! Let me know if you need any info. I lived in the DFW area for most of those years.

I am still looking for some good hills to go hiking on that aren’t 20 miles outside of town.

Umm, yeah, I don’t think there are very many! I used to work at a Camp Fire camp in Cedar Hill and we went hiking there but I think it is now called Dogwood Canyon.  You could also try the Trinity River Audubon Center - I think there are some nice trails there.

Hey Malibu Renter. This thread has been really helpful. Thanks. I am in Law School and am deciding between Orange County/Century City/San Diego and Dallas. I posted over in the water cooler about some questions I have. I was wondering if you’d mind giving your two cents on my questions.

http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/forums/viewthread/5660/

Thanks

One big difference between CA and TX is regulation.  It’s vastly harder to build similar building in CA.  There are more regulations in California on most topics.  CA also has higher taxes on most things. 

There are two studies which assess the difference in business climate in various states.  They are targeted to different audiences.  One for small businesses, the other for corporations.

1. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, <a>http://www.sbecouncil.org/uploads/BusinessTaxIndex2009Final.pdf</a> looks at taxation in different states in great detail.  It ranks CA a lowly #47 out of 51 (states + DC).  Texas is #5.

2. CEO Magazine <a>http://www.chiefexecutive.net/media/usbestandworststates/2009/</a> ranks states on several criteria, including Cost of Business, Technology & Innovation, Transportation, Business Friendliness, Workforce, Economy, Education, Quality of Life, and Access to Capital.  Texas ranks #1, CA is dead last.  Some of the commentary includes: “Expressing the prevalent attitude among CEOs, one CEO said, “Michigan and California literally need to do a 180 if they are ever to become competitive again.  California has huge advantages with its size, quality of work force, particularly in high tech, as well as the quality of life and climate advantages of the state. However, it is an absolute regulatory and tax disaster, as is Michigan.”

Dallas has a new and dangerous real estate trend.  First the practice, then the danger.

More and more homes in Dallas, particularly high end homes, are having their sale prices withheld.  Not just from the public records, but also from the MLS and other proprietary databases.  see http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-MLSprices_18bus.ART.State.Edition2.50e6fd6.html

Texas is one of a few states where disclosure of sales price is not mandatory.  In the article linked above, some realtors are claiming hiding the sale price is being done the great majority of the time by the buyer, perhaps to keep the info away from the Assessor.

I call BS.  It’s really being done to keep low comps out of the hands of potential buyers, and to keep the people who have already purchased from having the rest of the world see how much money they lost.  How do I know this?  1. If this was being done to keep info away from the Assessor, it would have been popular as prices were slowly rising 2004-2007, not declining in 2009.  2. I’ve seen how large the discounts are on some of the $1 million+ homes around here that are still listed, and some of the mammoth discounts from original list price for some homes that did disclose. 

Dallas is an area with no “jumbo conforming”.  There are jumbo loans over $417k, and below $417 things are conforming. 

So, why is this really dangerous?  When appraisers can’t get much data, in bad economic times they typically get quite conservative.  Fewer loans are made, for smaller amounts, and on average to people with better credit.  By trying to hide low comps, realtors are reducing the supply of credit and the number of qualifying buyers.

What potential buyers are able to see is the increasing number of price reductions and long time on the market for more expensive homes.  For this group, withholding prices is making them more cautious.  It is creating a sense that not much is selling on the high end, because recent sales aren’t showing up as comps.  When a lowball offer is received, sellers have a tougher time giving counterexamples of something which sold recently.

It’s a classic problem from econ class.  What might be in the interest of one realtor, seller, or buyer, is not in the interest of a market operating well.

Live from Dallas!!
So today we went to check it out and see some of the towns. Ok its not the OC but its not bad for what you get. We went to Fairview about 30 minutes outside of Dallas. It has a mall being built schedule to open later this summer and a great outlet mall. Everything was new .Today it was 104 and it was not as bad as people say. I did grow up in the Desert so maybe thats why it seemed ok. You cant be outside for to long, but if I am in a mansion who cares LOL.. We saw a beautiful home for $287K and it was 3200 sq feet. People are so nice and friendly. A guy opened the door for me to a store and he was not even going in the store. We have lunch at Cracker Barrel which was awesome. We saw Keith Urban perfom last night at American Airlines center. I think I can be a cowgirl!

wendyinoc - 13 July 2009 12:32 AM

Live from Dallas!!
So today we went to check it out and see some of the towns. Ok its not the OC but its not bad for what you get. We went to Fairview about 30 minutes outside of Dallas. It has a mall being built schedule to open later this summer and a great outlet mall. Everything was new .Today it was 104 and it was not as bad as people say. I did grow up in the Desert so maybe thats why it seemed ok. You cant be outside for to long, but if I am in a mansion who cares LOL.. We saw a beautiful home for $287K and it was 3200 sq feet. People are so nice and friendly. A guy opened the door for me to a store and he was not even going in the store. We have lunch at Cracker Barrel which was awesome. We saw Keith Urban perfom last night at American Airlines center. I think I can be a cowgirl!

Wow, I can have a mortgage of less than $1,000 if I dumped all of my savings into buying a home out there.

I am not sure if the Economist has been reading on IHB, but http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13990207 makes some similar points.

“An intriguing, much more equal rivalry out West. But both California and Texas can learn from each other

AMERICA’S recent history has been a relentless tilt to the West—of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California and Texas, the nation’s two biggest states, are the twin poles of the West, but very different ones. For most of the 20th century the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywood has been the brainier, sexier, trendier of the two: its suburbs and freeways, its fads and foibles, its marvellous miscegenation have spread around the world. Texas, once a part of the Confederacy, has trailed behind: its cliché has been a conservative Christian in cowboy boots, much like a certain recent president. But twins can change places. Is that happening now?

It is easy to find evidence that California is in a funk (see article). At the start of this month the once golden state started paying creditors, including those owed tax refunds, business suppliers and students expecting grants, in IOUs. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, also said that the gap between projected outgoings and income for the current fiscal year has leapt to a horrible $26 billion. With no sign of a new budget to close this chasm, one credit agency has already downgraded California’s debt. As budgets are cut, universities will let in fewer students, prisoners will be released early and schemes to protect the vulnerable will be rolled back.

They paved paradise and put up the parking taxes
Plenty of American states have budget crises; but California’s illustrate two more structural worries about the state. Back in its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s, it offered middle-class people, not just techy high-fliers, a shot at the American dream—complete with superb schools and universities, and an enviable physical infrastructure. These days California’s unemployment rate is running at 11.5%, two points ahead of the national average. In such Californian cities as Fresno, Merced and El Centro, jobless rates are higher than in Detroit. Its roads and schools are crumbling. Every year, over 100,000 more Americans leave the state than enter it.

The second worry has to do with dysfunctional government. No state has quite so many overlapping systems of accountability or such a gerrymandered legislature. Ballot initiatives, the crack cocaine of democracy, have left only around a quarter of its budget within the power of its representative politicians. (One reason budget cuts are inevitable is that voters rejected tax increases in a package of ballot measures in May.) Not that Californian government comes cheap: it has the second-highest top level of state income tax in America (after Hawaii, of all places). Indeed, high taxes, coupled with intrusive regulation of business and greenery taken to silly extremes, have gradually strangled what was once America’s most dynamic state economy. Chief Executive magazine, to take just one example, has ranked California the very worst state to do business in for each of the past four years.

By contrast, Texas was the best state in that poll. It has coped well with the recession, with an unemployment rate two points below the national average and one of the lowest rates of housing repossession. In part this is because Texan banks, hard hit in the last property bust, did not overexpand this time. But as our special report this week explains, Texas also clearly offers a different model, based on small government. It has no state capital-gains or income tax, and a business-friendly and immigrant-tolerant attitude. It is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state—64 compared with California’s 51 and New York’s 56. And as happens to fashionable places, some erstwhile weaknesses now seem strengths (flat, ugly countryside makes it easier for Dallas-Fort Worth to expand than mountain-and-sea-locked LA), while old conservative stereotypes are being questioned: two leading contenders to be Houston’s next mayor are a black man and a white lesbian. Texas also gets on better with Mexico than California does.

American conservatives have seized on this reversal of fortune: Arthur Laffer, a Reaganite economist, hails the Texan model over the Gipper’s now hopelessly leftish home. Despite all this, it still seems too early to cede America’s future to the Lone Star state. To begin with, that lean Texan model has its own problems. It has not invested enough in education, and many experts rightly worry about a “lost generation” of mostly Hispanic Texans with insufficient skills for the demands of the knowledge economy. Now immigration is likely to reconvert Texas from Republican red to Democratic blue; Latinos may justly demand a bigger, more “Californian” state to educate them and provide them with decent health care. But Texas could then end up with the same over-empowered public-sector unions who have helped wreck government in California.

Second, it has never paid to bet against a state with as many inventive people as California. Even if Hollywood is in the dumps (see article), it still boasts an unequalled array of sunrise industries and the most agile venture-capital industry on the planet; there is no prospect of the likes of Google decamping from Mountain View for Austin, though many start-ups have. The state also has an awesome ability to reinvent itself—as it did when its defence industry collapsed at the end of the cold war. Perhaps the rejection of tax increases will “starve the beast” and promote structural reform. A referendum on a new primaries system could end its polarised politics. Mr Schwarzenegger’s lazy governorship could come to be seen not as the great missed opportunity, but as the spur for reform.

Fifty laboratories, one magic formula
The truth is that both states could learn from each other. Texas still lacks California’s great universities and lags in terms of culture. California could adopt not just Texas’s leaner state, but also its more bipartisan approach to politics and its more welcoming attitude towards Mexico. There is no perfect model of government: it is America’s genius to have 50 public-policy laboratories competing to find out what works best—just as it is the relentless competition of clever new firms from Portland to Pittsburgh that will pull the country out of its current gloom. But, to give Texas some credit and serve as a warning to Mr Schwarzenegger’s heir, at this moment America’s two most futuristic states look a lot more like equals than ever before.”

I’ve never lived in Dallas, but did spend time in San Antonio and was offered an opportunity to relocate there.  I could’ve sold a condo in OC and moved to San Antonio to buy a new house with cash.  But I decided against it.  Recently, the company laid off most of the IT workers in OC (including myself), but retained the IT workers in Texas.  I suspect cost was a major consideration.

San Antonio is kinda like Southern CA where the older city center has its slums, and suburban sprawl is crawling out.  During day time the tourist areas of downtown (Alamo, Riverwalk) are pretty nice.  But at night the slummy areas looked very uninviting.  When I was there, I saw KB home signs everywhere and they were building new home tracts in over 30 locations.  You could buy a SFR back then for 120k-140k and a small McMansion for mere 250k.  Entry level homes were avail from 80k and up.  I donno what the prices are like today but you can check them on MLS.

I loved Rudy’s BBQ, but decided not to relocate there.  The weather was pretty extreme, when it’s hot it’s REALLY hot, and when it’s cold the roads ice over.  When I was walking around the company office’s gardens, I heard some noise and wondered what it was.  My coworkers called me back and told me that it was a rattlesnake.

Despite the lack of In N Out here, there are several Potbelly locations in Dallas, a very good sandwich shop.  It’s one of the things which also makes Midway airport better than O’hare.

All of the Carl’s locations are out in the boonies.

If you get the opportunity, try The Great Outdoors sandwich shop.  Also very good.

Had a strange but interesting conversation with someone who lives close to George and Laura today.  They actually talk to their neighbors, who have real jobs, and came to a happy hour at their house.

A couple of blocks down the street, someone else has had a “Welcome home George and Laura” banner for a while, perhaps since they arrived.  It’s overlaid on a Texas state flag.  They have had a few protesters, but apparently it’s not like LA, where there would be tour buses and people selling star maps.

About a half mile to the west of the ex president’s house, someone is trying awfully hard to be notable by making a very poorly hidden attempt to act like they are keeping tourists and little people away.  It’s on a minor street in Preston Hollow which has some construction going on.  They have huge signs saying basically “Stay out, no gawkers, no tourists, we are really important here and you’re not.  We even have a security guard with a gun and a nice butt”. 

What they really seem to mean is “we’re new to the neighborhood and we want attention and status”.  Just like being in LA.  Maybe they are from LA.