Gunfighter

Moving to Texas comes in many flavors. IAH, DFW, AUS, SAT and the multiple outlying suburbs vary widely. That just covers the triangle. East Texas and West Texas are about as different as AZ and GA. I've flown with more than one "million dollar man" and state taxes are a huge burden. Family was generally more of a deciding factor than state taxes on choice of residence.

I'd be happy to share opinions on different areas of TX either publicly or via PM is you'd rather not give away your son's location. If he has kids, school district or proximity to private school will likely be the primary consideration within a metro area.

Wolf424

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t dislike Texas. What Gun said is right…West and East Texas are vastly different. Strictly talking about Houston vs Atlanta (the original argument, and having lived in both), I’d pick Atlanta.

Forgotmyhat

Amen brotha. I’ve lived in “cheap” places and I’ve lived “expensive” places. You get what you pay for (for the most part).

Timbo

When I was a new hire with no house, looking to buy one in New Hampshire (BOS base) the prices were about double anything similar in Atlanta.

When I mentioned this to the FO he said, "That's because an acre of red clay is still an acre of red clay."

I ended up buying a small 3/2 house in Exeter, NH built in 1962 for $189,000, at the very peak of the market in 1988, lived in it 9 years (and 4 kids) and lost $20,000 when I sold it in 1997 for $169,000, after they closed the BOS base in 1996. The realtor told me I was lucky to get that! She said most of her clients had to bring money to the closing!

blue vortex

i'm guessing you've never been to a Michigan lake. And you certainly have not been to Ohio or Kentucky lake because they simply don't exist. And Ann Arbor is just fantastic like nothing else. Even our conservative guys like it there.

Planetrain

There’s literally a “Kentucky Lake”! Ask Patti, it’s been there since 1881 or so.

crewdawg

You're guessing wrong, I've been to lots of Michigan Lakes. I drove nearly every mile of lake frontage in the Irish Hills (a few other places) during early rona days as I considered a rental lake house. I grew up in Ohio and spent a lot of my childhood on an Ohio lake fishing...on a lake the doesn't exist I guess. I'm just more apt to live on a fly-in community than I am a lake.

Ann Arbor isn't bad, I actually used to keep my plane at ARB, but it's certainly not the end all, be all town. I did enjoy getting the death stares as a late as early last year for not wearing a mask in the Costco by the airport. I'd prefer to live in the Dexter area as I generally prefer a rural vibe.

I'd consider Tecumseh, I know a Delta pilot living on that airport, but nothing good is opening up there. The rest of viable communities are just a bit too far north for me. This brings up another reason I'd rather have CVG, I'm not a fan of winter, snow, cold weather anymore. Just that difference in latitude makes a huge difference in temp which leads to a more mild winter. More sunshine and warmer temps throughout the winter does wonders for my mood lol. Not to mention I'd easily get another 2 or 3 months of good flying weather down there.

Timbo

You could do the Snowbird thing and buy something small in central FL near or on an airport so you could fly in good weather all winter. I've got several friends who do that, one comes down from Ontario, Canada with his LSA airplane.

Bucking Bar

My 3,600 sq. ft. house is on a ... street ... in suburban Atlanta; taxes $7,600 a year increasing 25% annually and our new County Prosecutor's latest "leadership project" is a victim's assistance puppy. His puppy has a staff of two people ... I kid you not.

Anyway, back to bases. With age 67, a big push to reduce costs in Flight Ops Admin and Training, the short answer is "we'd prefer you not have a way to exit a seat-lock." They have a critical mass of 320's & 737 to cover any flight network dreams up domestically and the early duty in's from timbuktu feed the network from towns where the hotels are cheap.

RedBull

Well now with the news of hiring ~1000 this year instead of 2000+, Im hoping your hunch is accurate