Suggestions for places in TX or NM?

[JimNKC]

Hi folks, just found the podcast this past week and been hooked listening all day at work (when not dealing with customers...) ;-)

Our situation briefly, is this... At 47, the winters aren't as easy to work outside in here in Kansas City area, even though the last few haven't been too bad. I had knee surgery a couple years ago, and installing satellite dishes for Directv, now AT&T, is mostly a young man's job. (I'm in the top 5 or 6 of 100+ techs at our site in age.) So, the wife brought up that some friends were moving to Albuquerque next month, and she thought it might be a good idea for us too, after fixing up the house for selling and paying off some debts.

Timeframe is probably a year to 18 months, at a guess... but, I figure I'd start exploring now. I'd appreciate advice on places to check out, and I've been thinking Northern Texas or maybe Northeastern New Mexico. It's South of us now, so I'd think the weather would be better on average, which is a big thing for me. (The charts I've seen suggest that too.) I've heard high desert is a good type of climate for what we may want, but other important things would be low crime rates, good schools maybe (been discussing home-schooling or private Christian schools for our Preschooler twins after they finish Kindergarten), not TOO far from major stores such as Sam's Club/Costco, Lowe's, grocery stores, etc. and somewhere folks are friendly and you can have some land  for a decent price. I like the idea of being able to go out back and plink some cans, grow at least some crops/have some animals, etc.

Things we really want to avoid are being close to the border, high taxes and restrictive gun laws. We speak Spanish at home, but don't want to be on the frontline. Missouri has been home for 20 years now, for me, but I am not welded to my job... if I can continue doing what I do down there, great... if not, I am willing to find other work.

Any suggestions on places to look or avoid? The places that have sounded most interesting to me so far are Pampa and Amarillo area in TX. Any good areas near Albuquerque, or further East? What kind of benefits of NM vs. TX? Ah yes, by "not TOO far" I probably mean 30 minutes or so drive time.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[TerlinguaTX]

I would choose TX over NM. NM is very liberal and doesn't have the economic opportunities that Texas can provide.

[JimNKC]

Thanks, I've come to the same conclusion about not looking in NM... still prefer Texas generally but also been checking out Oklahoma. Time frame getting pushed back though by my wife. She's not fully on board, but slowly she's changing some of her views.

For now, it looks like we will be stuck around the Kansas City area for several more years, so we'll make the best of it and dump debt as fast as we can, work on the house, and investigate exactly what we can/can't do permaculture-wise in our 1/3 acre suburban lot. She's actually pretty supportive of my starting to grow microgreens in the basement and is willing to start helping with that. She also didn't bat an eyelash when I told her tonight that if we are stuck here for several years I will be tinkering around with some aquaponics/hydropincs and even asked me to look into KC laws on greenhouses, chicken coops, etc!

Step by step... ;-)

My younguns are all excited about being farmers (and wait excitedly every day for Papi to get home to go water our 2'x5' micro garden with some corn, sunflowers and beans in it... LOL

[machinisttx]

No state income tax in TX. OK has income tax...and taxes pretty much everything else too. OK even taxes unprepared foods(such as raw meat, uncooked noodles, etc.). The taxes themselves are individually low(property tax for example), but I suspect that overall they're just as much as most others.

If you're staying where you are for the time being, any improvements you make should help you sell later when you are ready to go.

[JimNKC]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I suspected that anywhere you go the taxman gonna get you. If we shoot for providing for more and more of our own needs though, and maybe find neighbors to barter with, then I'd think even taxes on unprocessed foodstuff would be hard to assess if we don't 'value it' in dollars but just say trade a 1/4 beef for X dozen eggs, X amount of tomatos and lettuce, and X lbs. of tilapia or catfish fillets... right?

[machinisttx]

If you're bartering, then you're bypassing the sales tax. I've never looked into it, but I suspect that you're supposed to report it....though I'm sure that very few ever do. It'd be worth a look just to avoid any potential issues.

[FrugalFannie]

If you're bartering, then you're bypassing the sales tax. I've never looked into it, but I suspect that you're supposed to report it....though I'm sure that very few ever do. It'd be worth a look just to avoid any potential issues.

The IRS considers barter a taxable event and reportable as some form of "income."

[shadowalker_returns]

For me Texas beats out both NM and OK. The Tax situation and attitudes are much improved for survival/prepper types than NM. Opportunities are better in Texas than OK (IMO). Full disclosure: I live in Texas, not a Texas native. If you like deserts and open plains and government land then NM wins, it is prettier. Most Texas land is under private control. I don't know what it is about OK but after about 3-4 days there I just want to start screaming. Good luke on your choices/moves.

Regards,
Shadowlaker

[LvsChant]

Well... good luck finding a good location. I've lived in the Albuquerque NM area (if you are still thinking of looking into it, I'd recommend the East Mountains). The city itself has a pretty high crime rate. PM me if you want more info. I'm a NM native.

As for the politics, etc. I have to agree that it isn't that attractive in many ways, although it is a beautiful state.

We also lived in Texas and I liked many things about it, but didn't find the lack of income tax to be that helpful if you are a property owner. the taxes (to pay for ridiculous huge public school facilities that look more like college campuses) were very high. I'd investigate pretty carefully what the property taxes will be before purchasing anything there. Many homes have annual property taxes from $7K-$13K in the Ft. Worth area... probably higher in the Dallas area. It may be something you are willing to put up with, but remember... that tax rate won't drop when your income does at retirement. That DFW region is also very often a tornado magnet, it seems. I have heard there are some other parts of the state that have more reasonable property taxes, but we didn't find them

Good luck to you...

[machinisttx]

I'm an hour north of D/FW. Some of the small towns/communities in the area don't even have schools...they partner with other small towns and send their kids to school there. Not much point in building a school in a town with a population under 200 when the city a few miles over has plenty of room in theirs. We've had no small number of tornadoes in the last couple of years, some of which did a fair bit of damage to homes/schools/businesses and others which destroyed mostly just trees. A several hundred year old pecan orchard down the road from us got hit pretty hard the last round.

Big school = big city = big taxes. I couldn't live inside the city limits of even a small town(1k pop or less), others seem to thrive in them. IIRC, property taxes on our 18 acres are in the neighborhood of $3k. My uncle's property tax(19 acres next to us) is quite a bit higher, solely because his house is brick instead of siding. Seemingly insignificant details of a home or garage can cost you quite a bit more in property taxes. OTOH, the property tax on my 5 acres in OK was less than $30 this year. *shrug*

[LvsChant]

@machinisttx: We also didn't live inside the city limits... west of FW. We figure our $7.5K/yr property taxes would have been north of $13K if the same home had been in the FW city limits... It was also the time when we completely lost our patience with homeowners' associations

[JimNKC]

Well, thanks for the replies folks. Been busy with life, buying and starting to read books on Rocket Mass Heaters, Solar Air, Homesteading, etc. After a surprising discussion this week with my wife, she's said she supports us fixing up the house we have now to get it ready to sell and finding some rural land! She's starting working and is looking for some extra hours at work, and I am looking for a part time job, maybe at Menard's, to pay off debts, a new roof and windows and some general fix up... and we should be able to sell this house and get some decent money for it.

We've decided that rather than move way South, to probably stay in Missouri, but more South of Jeff. City/St. Louis area. Can find land over there in the $10k to $100k range for 10-40 acres, sometimes with a house or a couple buildings, a well and septic, etc. (Thanks Jack for encouraging us to look harder in Missouri.)  Today, she even started talking about how she wants an outdoor kitchen like her grandma had in Bolivia, a huge roofed porch and an outside shower. She's even been pointing me towards videos on shipping container houses... but, not the buried kind, whew!

Shows what time, planting seeds and some patience can accomplish!

[machinisttx]

I'd love to have an outdoor kitchen here. It's just too dang hot in the summer to use the oven much.

[LvsChant]

@JimNKC: Good job figuring out what suits you best and taking the steps to make it happen...