Texas or New Hampshire?

[TheArchDuke]

It'll still be another 4 or 5 years before I can leave California, but I was wondering which of these states I should move to. I just can't decide.

Which state has better gun laws? Which states has better cost of living/good income? Does Texas have any good cities that don't get hotter than hell in the summer? Conversly, does New Hampshire have any cities that don't freeze solid in the winter? I personally love the snow but my girlfriend of over four years, who may very well become my wife and move with me, can't stand the cold. But me? I can't handle heat. If it's more than 70 or 75 degrees, I stay inside haha. So you can see our problem. I'd be willing to move to a place with a similar climate as San Diego.


Decisions decisions.

 

[springmom]

Texas!

Texas has five climates to choose from. Take your pick. You can have snow in winter if you want it (Panhandle, North Texas) or never see snow (South Texas, Southeast Texas). You can have desert (west Texas, trans-Pecos) or you can have hill country (Central Texas) or you can have piney woods (east Texas).

OTOH, if you want to ski, I think you will have to go with New Hampshire. Although if you live in the Panhandle or west Texas, you're not too far from New Mexico.

Financially, it depends on where you live, but Texas in general has a very good cost of living. No state income tax. Houston has the best employment situation in the state, IIRC, but Dallas/Ft Worth, Lubbock, Amarillo, and of course my beloved Austin area (I miss Austin) have good job bases too. VERY friendly people...you move in, you are WELCOME and made to feel so.

Springmom

 

[TheArchDuke]

Texas has five climates to choose from. Take your pick. You can have snow in winter if you want it (Panhandle, North Texas) or never see snow (South Texas, Southeast Texas). You can have desert (west Texas, trans-Pecos) or you can have hill country (Central Texas) or you can have piney woods (east Texas).

OTOH, if you want to ski, I think you will have to go with New Hampshire. Although if you live in the Panhandle or west Texas, you're not too far from New Mexico.

Springmom

Thanks springmom. I'll probably end up choosing Texas. It seems to be a better place for big city folk like me. But I just love the new England forests and hills. *sigh* I guess I'll just have to visit NH often

 

[duckslayer]

It is about 70 degrees in Dallas right now. Although, that is an anomoly. It gets hot here in the summer, and usually cold in the winter. It snows about every year, but it only lasts a day or so. You won't like the summers here. Houston is worse in the summer, with the 99% humidity.

I would argue that cost of living vs. income is better in Texas, but New Hampshire has better scenery.

 

[TheArchDuke]

and of course my beloved Austin area (I miss Austin) have good job bases too. VERY friendly people...you move in, you are WELCOME and made to feel so.

Springmom

Yeah I was thinking about Austin. Everyone says it's the liberal city in Texas but to me it seems pretty conservative...compared to my state.

 

[one-shot-one]

NO

Which state has better gun laws? texas
Which states has better cost of living/good income? don't know
Does Texas have any good cities that don't get hotter than hell in the summer? no
Conversly, does New Hampshire have any cities that don't freeze solid in the winter? no

 

[TechBrute]

If you're that picky, stay in San Diego.

I sold my 1050sqft house in Escondido, nowhere near the beach, near some shady parts of town, for $305K, moved back to Dallas, and bought a 2500sqft house for less than half of that, in a nicer area than what I was.

Heat? Pfffft. I can afford to run my AC non-stop throughout the summer and I still have electric bills less than when I was being miserly in San Diego. My wife doesn't have to work now, so she's home all day with our soon to be 3 kids with the AC running non-stop.

 

[springmom]

but that's why God created air conditioning

Which state has better gun laws? texas
Which states has better cost of living/good income? don't know
Does Texas have any good cities that don't get hotter than hell in the summer? no
Conversly, does New Hampshire have any cities that don't freeze solid in the winter? no

Texas is cheaper and has better job situations, on the whole.

Besides, you can always go sit in Barton Springs Pool to cool off if you move to Austin. The evil grin is because Barton Springs is about 55 degrees all year round and if you jump in that puppy on an 100 degree day you are going to learn what it is to walk on water to get back to dry ground quick! LOL!

Springmom, missing Austin worse for talking about it....

 

[jacobtowne]

If you are unfamiliar with the rigors of a northern New England winter, and your lady does not like the cold, I guess you have little choice.
If you can adapt to winter temperatures that fall well below zero, and annual snowfalls of four to ten feet, depending on location, NH would be a possibility.
That said, winter does not last all year (although heavy snow in March or April makes me lose faith occasionally). There are four seasons here, after all.
JT

 

[Chipperman]

NH has no income tax OR sales tax, so they beat TX there.

For guns laws, the biggest advantage NH has over TX is where you can carry. In NH, you can carry almost anywhere, except a courtroom. In TX, you have the silly no carry in schools or in bars, and the 30.06 bullcrap.

 

[Rockrivr1]

"NH has no income tax OR sales tax, so they beat TX there"

This is true, but on the reverse side, NH has a pretty hefty property tax. That's how they make up for not having income or sales tax.

If your future wife does not like the cold your SOL if you were thinking of NH. Plus, if your really looking for a state with great gun rights, you should consider Vermont. They have virtually no gun laws at all. If it's made and not a machine gun, you can buy it there. Open carry and they honor every states LTC. Now that's a state to live in. Not exactly sure what you'd do up there for work though unless you were in the Ski or Wood industries. Maybe someone from there could tell you that.

 

[boofus]

new england is the armpit of America. It is entirely too close to the contagious liberal nonsense emanating from New Dork and Assachusetts.

Come down here to TX where you can still find good Mexican food and shoot any kind of gun imaginable. You could put ALL of new england into Texas and probably still have room to spare, that's how big and wide freedom should be.

 

[Brad Johnson]

If you want some info on Lubbock, I'd be happy to oblige.

Couple of highlights...

90th largest city in the U.S. but it still feels like a small town. Heck you can get all the way from one side of town to the other in twenty minutes (and that's on a bad day!)

In November 2005 was named by Money Magazine as the most affordable college town in the U.S.

We have really nice folks here.

Info from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock,_Texas

By car we are:

2 hours from Amarillo and Midland/Odessa
4 hours from Ruidoso (ski)
5 hours from Ft. Worth, Albuqurque, Sante Fe, and El Paso
6 Hours to Dallas
7 hours to Red River and Taos (also ski, with Taos being pretty darn good)
9 hours to Denver, Flagstaff, and most of northern New Mexico
10-12 hours to most of central and southwestern Colorado (MOUNTAINS!)
12 hours to Las Vegas
18 hours to Chicago (don't know why you'd want to go, but now you know..)

 

[RyanM]

CCW in NH requires $10 for 4 years (renewal $10), and you need to know 3 people who'll vouch for you being of good mental health (people from back home in CA is fine, and the police almost never contact references unless the background check turns up something a little fishy). No fingerprints. Processing time is very short. I believe NH state law says that they must process your application within either one or two weeks.

CCW in TX requires $140 for 5 years (renewal $70), requires a 10-15 hour training course, and fingerprints. Processing may take up to 180 days. 30-60 days is an optimistic estimate.

 

[rbernie]

Given your climate choices, you might want to look at elevated locations in high desert climes (e.g. Sante Fe, NM or Flagstaff, AZ) as opposed to trying to just 'pick a state'.

Having said that - I'm presently living north of Dallas, but I'd be right happy to move down to Austin.

 

[oweno]

>Which state has better gun laws?

Dunno for sure but my bet is NH.

>Which states has better cost of living/good income?

NH taxes are wicked low, even our property taxes ain't all that bad. Especially if you're a veteran. My town gives us vets $500 off our tax bill.

> Conversly, does New Hampshire have any cities that don't freeze solid in the winter?

No.

>I personally love the snow but my girlfriend of over four years, who may very >well become my wife and move with me, can't stand the cold.

This pretty much rules out NH but, you can do neat stuff in the winter like skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, own your own snowblower, learn the advantage of 4-wheel drive on local streets (you don't have to go off-road to need 4WD), have fun in your car in a parking lot after freezing rain, drive on lakes, ... the list goes on. Oh yeah, no rattlesnakes up here too.

> I'd be willing to move to a place with a similar climate as San Diego.

San Deigo this ain't. Not even close.

But good luck.

 

[scott5]

Given your climate choices, you might want to look at elevated locations in high desert climes (e.g. Sante Fe, NM or Flagstaff, AZ) as opposed to trying to just 'pick a state'.

Having said that - I'm presently living north of Dallas, but I'd be right happy to move down to Austin.

TheArchDuke,
I don't think you want to live in Sante Fe, unless you to feel like your living in a hippy new age Mecca.

Sante Fe is what keeps this state liberal, as the rest of the state votes conservitive Sante Fe votes liberal and has enough pull and people to drag the entire state down

If you stay out of Sante Fe and Bernileo county, then you will find gun havens everywhere.

 

[TheArchDuke]

Come down here to TX where you can still find good Mexican food and shoot any kind of gun imaginable.

You know, I didn't even consider the possibility of losing the wonder that is Mexican food. Haha that is a great point.

 

[TheArchDuke]

If you want some info on Lubbock, I'd be happy to oblige.

Couple of highlights...

90th largest city in the U.S. but it still feels like a small town. Heck you can get all the way from one side of town to the other in twenty minutes (and that's on a bad day!)

Haha I'm in the 7th largest city right now. But that does sound like a nice city. We'll have to check it out.

 

[pisztoly]

new england is the armpit of America. It is entirely too close to the contagious liberal nonsense emanating from New Dork and Assachusetts.

Come down here to TX where you can still find good Mexican food and shoot any kind of gun imaginable. You could put ALL of new england into Texas and probably still have room to spare, that's how big and wide freedom should be.

Kindly don't paint New England with one brush. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are friendly to gun owners and excellent places to live. NH is the best of course (I may be a LITTLE biased).

NH is a "shall issue" state. There is currently a bill pending in the legislature that would make it a Class "A" Felony for any public official to attempt to confiscate firearms in the event of a "Katrina" like disaster. In short, for the most part we have our ???? together.

As far as New Yorkers are concerned they are of no concern to NH, just VT.
You are entirely correct in regards to Ass a Chew Sits however,those stupid SOBs move to NH (and ME) to "escape" MA, then try to remake our states in their pathetic image.:banghead:

MA is certainly the armpit of NE, just as CA is certainly the ??????? of the U.S.

 

[Azrael256]

From Dallas, I can drive several hundred miles in almost any direction without having to put my CCW in the trunk. I can have crawfish in Mobile, chiles in Alamogordo and... whatever Oklahoma is good for... Tumbleweed stew, I guess, all without taking off my pistol.

Try that in New Hampshire.

 

[20cows]

We don't even know what the "frost line" is. (I think that's what you call how deep you have to dig a foundation to be below the level at which the ground freezes in the winter, but honestly, I don't really know).

 

[SSN Vet]

"Live Free or Die"

If you don't like to get out and do things in the winter...
ski, snowmobile, skate, snow shoe, etc...You probably won't like the North.

NH has extremely low crime rates and small town living...it's a great place to raise a family.

The state gov't is so strapped for cash they don't have the resources to "play socialism" (as if the voters here would let them get away with it anyway)...so if you come, be prepared to stand on your own two feet.

My wife worked for a man who moved his market research business from CA to NH after an exhaustive study (He could move to any state). NH is a good place to run a business.

As for Liberty issues....just read the license plate "Live Free or Die"

The Libertarian party chose NH for their Free State Project and are supposed to get 20,000 people to move to NH to concentrate their influence (only on million in the whole state!).

NH has no border issues (unless you're hoping to smuggle cheep booze and cigarettes into Canada) and no issue with illegals.....not really a very diverse place.

 

[Manedwolf]

Thanks springmom. I'll probably end up choosing Texas. It seems to be a better place for big city folk like me. But I just love the new England forests and hills. *sigh* I guess I'll just have to visit NH often

Big polluted cities surrounded by zero-lotline SUV-in-every-driveway soccermom developments, you mean. The air of Dallas, for one, is nasty.

NH at least still has clean air and lots of forest between towns.

 

[Live Free Or Die]

The Libertarian party chose NH for their Free State Project and are supposed to get 20,000 people to move to NH to concentrate their influence (only on million in the whole state!).

The Libertarian Party doesn't have anything to do with the Free State Project, although its participants tend to be ideologically libertarian. And the population is more like 1.3 million. But who's counting?