We recently relocated to San Antonio from SD. Just for those of you who have never been here in San Antonio, this part of Texas is not flat, but hilly, not tan, but very green and full of trees. San Antonio is warmer and more humid that San Diego.
We had three years to decide where we wanted to relocate. After 15 years in the military, we were choosing our “final” home, where we are planting our roots and schooling our children. We have made way too many cross country moves in the past years and have lived in Dallas, MS, Upstate NY, coastal NC, AZ, VA and SD. I grew up on the East Coast and Hubby grew up in Orange County. We have lived a lot of places so we knew what was important to us when we choosing our permanent home.
We both own our own businesses, so obviously taxes and a business friendly environment were important factors. Cost of living figured in, as did having a kid friendly environment with plenty of fun things to do with our kids (Sea World, Fiesta Texas, Zoo, etc). And the most important for us was the school that we chose for our kids, a small private school, reasonably priced but offering one of the best educations around (even the College Boards agreed).
We knew what we were leaving, we love the beach, the coastal community, etc. But frankly we determined that the “sunshine tax” was too huge a price to pay, a tax on our future.
This choice isn’t for everyone. Both of us have moved many times and experienced many different “cultures” within the US, so making a move like this was not a big deal. In fact, we hear anecdotal stories of CA moving here all the time, occasionally, a disgruntled Californian returns home. But it seems most stay and I am sure they have their own reasons why.
Many of our CA friends expressed an interest in doing so, but having never left CA they did not know what to expect. And for most of them, it will keep them in CA regardless of whether they can afford to live there or not.
