Did no one pay attention to the post from the person who actually LIVED in Texas? Try paying 2.5% property tax. On a 400K home you’re looking at 10K yearly. Now add the high energy bills you need to heat and cool your 3000sf McMansion in Texas where it is HOT in the summer and COLD in the winter. And don’t forget the higher insurance to cover you in case of hail, floods and tornadoes. Oh, and there’s no Prop 13 in Texas so your property value gets re-assesed frequently. These additional costs add to the monthly payment which keeps the house price low in relation to California (most sheeple buy according to the payment, not the price of the home). And of course there is an incredible amount of free land to build on in Texas so there’s no need for a lot of restriction on building permits; you will always be competing with a large amount of new homes in new subdivisions with shinier shopping malls and newer schools. This acts as another damper on home price appreciation. I’m sorry but it has nothing to do with religion, and Texans are not any smarter than Californians.

I will take back my remark about lots of fat people in Texas. I was just there a few days ago and people looked generally healthier than they do here in SD! Maybe that is due to the religion factor, but the difference in home price definitely isn’t…