I'm an expat moving to the US in Texas, where do you recommend I relocate?

[ElNono]

Still confused why OP chose Texas and what's his prior experience in the USA

Yep. Just a terrible State to live year-round, tbh...

Weather, beaches and people-wise, hard to beat California, but you have to afford living here.

For international-style living, both NY and NJ (slightly cheaper) are good options in the NE, though snow sucks. The NW also has some good options in Seattle/Portland, but depends where.

The whole income taxes thing is a bit overrated as well, generally you get paid more in places like California or New York, because the expectation is that you'll afford those taxes.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Yep. Just a terrible State to live year-round, tbh...

Weather, beaches and people-wise, hard to beat California, but you have to afford living here.

For international-style living, both NY and NJ (slightly cheaper) are good options in the NE, though snow sucks. The NW also has some good options in Seattle/Portland, but depends where.

The whole income taxes thing is a bit overrated as well, generally you get paid more in places like California or New York, because the expectation is that you'll afford those taxes.

Before it was that way... but for the high end W2 jobs you make about the same in each.

If you're a lower middle class worker making like teacher level salary, then yes the difference is enough. Teachers typically make around $50K in SA, $55K in DFW, $70K in NYC and close to $80K in the expensive parts of California... so there's a substantial incremental and proportional difference there.

But for stuff like high end tech type jobs, it's maybe $145K in DFW, $140K in SA, $145K in NYC and LA and maybe $150K in Silicon Valley/SF... and that might be pushing it. And that was pre-covid. Since covid, the cost of living adjustment has grown thinner and thinner because of hybrid and remote working. There's hardly any difference to justify the difference in taxes and cost of living.

[ElNono]

Before it was that way... but for the high end W2 jobs you make about the same in each.

False, clearly you never had one of those. I can live literally anywhere I want in the world, but I know first hand that people doing similar work in Texas or Florida simply earn less than in LA or SF. Similarly when I lived in NJ, I made substantially more than the same worker in Texas.

That said, when you're in that tier, sometimes you're ok with leaving some money on the table to move to a place you feel it's better for you.

If you're a lower middle class worker making like teacher level salary, then yes the difference is enough. Teachers typically make around $50K in SA, $55K in DFW, $70K in NYC and close to $80K in the expensive parts of California... so there's a substantial incremental and proportional difference there.

But for stuff like high end tech type jobs, it's maybe $145K in DFW, $140K in SA, $145K in NYC and LA and maybe $150K in Silicon Valley/SF... and that might be pushing it. And that was pre-covid. Since covid, the cost of living adjustment has grown thinner and thinner because of hybrid and remote working. There's hardly any difference to justify the difference in taxes and cost of living.

High end tech jobs in LA or SF don't go below $200K once you include bonuses, stock maturities, etc. But, sure, you get taxed more as well. Exactly what I was stating.

[baseline bum]

I guess Brooklyn, Boulder, Colorado, or Denver are also options, but we're also looking for a shorter way home in comparison to Budapest which is 15+ hours away from an emergency in our country.

I guess I'm biased a bit because of the chance to have the Spurs fairly near.

Are you planning on being a season ticket holder or just say going to 5 games a year? If the latter with full remote work but still close enough to make the occasional road trip for a Spurs game you could check out a place like Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, or Port Isabel so you get beaches and fishing and the weather is nicer. Though Port Isabel is quite a bit farther drive to San Antonio than Corpus or Port Aransas since it's right off the Mexican border.

Though if you really want nice summer weather for being outdoors Colorado is ing hard to beat.

[Millennial_Messiah]

when you're in that tier, sometimes you're ok with leaving some money on the table to move to a place you feel it's better for you.

That's a true statement. Sometimes if you're in that tier you just have to choose what's more worth it to you, that 3rd car garage space and extra half acre and extra 1000 sqft of house, or a smaller house with equal or higher operating costs but a much better weather climate and a social climate that more fits your needs.

[Millennial_Messiah]

High end tech jobs in LA or SF don't go below $200K once you include bonuses, stock maturities, etc. But, sure, you get taxed more as well. Exactly what I was stating.

What do you mean by "high end"? The big name IT consulting firms generally don't pay over $140k-150k for any of their senior level consultants regardless of location. From their perspective, they are paying from their stash of rupees out of India and they couldn't care less whether your state income tax is 13.3% or 0.0%. (Plus, SF city limits tacks on an additional 1.0%, but not very many tech jobs are left in the SF city limits.)

[ElNono]

What do you mean by "high end"? The big name IT consulting firms generally don't pay over $140k-150k for any of their senior level consultants regardless of location. From their perspective, they are paying from their stash of rupees out of India and they couldn't care less whether your state income tax is 13.3% or 0.0%. (Plus, SF city limits tacks on an additional 1.0%, but not very many tech jobs are left in the SF city limits.)

I'm talking about the Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Sony, etc 'senior' positions, especially having to do with engineering or R&D. The compe ion for that kind of talent is brutal in the entire Valley and LA.

Can't say much more, but the swings in that kind of talent are also brutal due to bidding wars, since CA pretty much outright banned non-competes.

But you have to be in the area. Austin is starting to shape up like that as well and if you think it's gentrified now, wait 5-10 years, it's only gonna get much worse.

[Millennial_Messiah]

I'm talking about the Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Sony, etc 'senior' positions, especially having to do with engineering or R&D. The compe ion for that kind of talent is brutal in the entire Valley and LA.

Can't say much more, but the swings in that kind of talent are also brutal due to bidding wars, since CA pretty much outright banned non-competes.

But you have to be in the area. Austin is starting to shape up like that as well and if you think it's gentrified now, wait 5-10 years, it's only gonna get much worse.

one of the few good things that state government has done

[Millennial_Messiah]

I'm talking about the Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Sony, etc 'senior' positions, especially having to do with engineering or R&D. The compe ion for that kind of talent is brutal in the entire Valley and LA.

I guess for the full time employment direct hire positions. All I know is the India IT consulting world. Never really had an opportunity at direct hire. But consulting comes with lower expectations too.

[baseline bum]

It's hot but it's not as stupid hot as last year or say 2011. But it's been too wet imo. You either get too hot or too wet. I like summer days to be in the 70s with cool nights and reasonable amount of dryness and low humidity days.

Ugh spoke too soon about our summer. Now we're getting 100s for a week and a half straight and two weeks earlier than average (average first day of 100+ in San Antonio is June 26th).

[DeadlyDynasty]

Getting sick of gulyas and lecso mate?

I love Budapest, good people unlike the rest of Orbanistan. You can find me and the wife at Cafe Gerbeaud at least once a month

[DeadlyDynasty]

Budapest has the most scenic riverfront of the Danube. Bratislava 2nd and Vienna a surprising and disappointing 3rd.

[Millennial_Messiah]

^ I want to go to Europe some day

[Millennial_Messiah]

Ugh spoke too soon about our summer. Now we're getting 100s for a week and a half straight and two weeks earlier than average (average first day of 100+ in San Antonio is June 26th).

True, but, it's still a lot later than our first and first batch of 100+ degree days last year.

[baseline bum]

True, but, it's still a lot later than our first and first batch of 100+ degree days last year.

Wow it's better than the literal worst summer in the recorded history of the city. Kind of a low bar to clear.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Wow it's better than the literal worst summer in the recorded history of the city. Kind of a low bar to clear.

Worst first half (and second half of spring) but it was a front heavy summer. July and August weren't exactly setting records.

2011 IMO was worse because there was literally no rain the entire spring and summer and early fall. The high temps were consistently around 107 degrees throughout the summer not just one half or the other.

Side note: possibly I'm biased because I was a junior in high school that year and I actually had to walk in it and live in it on a daily basis. Couldn't get out of it by driving north somewhere or to the mountains if I wanted to.

But I do remember pretty vividly a Tropical Storm Don (or Donald?) in the summer of 2011 that formed over the Gulf and was supposed to develop into a hurricane and hit Texas and be a major drought buster but instead it met the massive 1045 millibar high pressure ridge parked over us and literally fell apart into a naked swirl and disintegrated before landfall.

[baseline bum]

Worst first half (and second half of spring) but it was a front heavy summer. July and August weren't exactly setting records.

July 2022 was either the hottest or second hottest month ever recorded in San Antonio, I forget. It was really close either way with August 2011. July was a nightmare especially the week that like 105+ with high dewpoints every day. I remember one day it rained and dropped the temp to 85 and then an hour and a half later it was like 104 but now with elevated humidity because of the rain.

[Millennial_Messiah]

July 2022 was either the hottest or second hottest month ever recorded in San Antonio, I forget. It was really close either way with August 2011. July was nightmare especially the week that like 105+ with high dewpoints every day.

I was here in most of July actually and yeah it was bad but I thought May and June were worse because they were bigger anomalies. Plus I spent lots of June in other places including Denver and still couldn't escape the 100 degree heat even there in June. The whole country east of the Rockies was scorching and parched in June 2022. And gas was over $5 per gallon and over $4.50 even in Texas.

Awful year, but the fall wasn't too bad IMO.

[baseline bum]

I was here in most of July actually and yeah it was bad but I thought May and June were worse because they were bigger anomalies. Plus I spent lots of June in other places including Denver and still couldn't escape the 100 degree heat even there in June. The whole country east of the Rockies was scorching and parched in June 2022. And gas was over $5 per gallon and over $4.50 even in Texas.

Awful year, but the fall wasn't too bad IMO.

July 2022 was a huge anomaly. Our average number of 100 degree days per year the last 20-25 years is like 18 and we had 29 in July if I remember right. June was definitely horrible with like 18 though. Still with it being a heavy El Nino year I was hoping this summer would just be an average summer, not even a cool one. But hard to see that if we're going to have 6 or 7 days of 100+ in the next ten since July and August are the months these kind of heat domes are normal in all but the coolest years.

[Millennial_Messiah]

July 2022 was a huge anomaly. Our average number of 100 degree days per year the last 20-25 years is like 18 and we had 29 in July if I remember right. June was definitely horrible with like 18 though. Still with it being a heavy El Nino year I was hoping this summer would just be an average summer, not even a cool one. But hard to see that if we're going to have 6 or 7 days of 100+ in the next ten since July and August are the months these kind of heat domes are normal in all but the coolest years.

With the Omega Blocking pattern in place I don't foresee a wet or stormy Texas this summer. The heat records won't likely top last year because we've already had enough cooling from the springtime troughiness/jet stream that brought us plenty of rain the last couple months. However it will still be above average. Summers coming off a previous La Nina where El Nino just started to form, using 2004 and 2009 as analog years... are typically still average to above average in temperatures and average to below average in precipitation.

Summers like 2010 where El Nino dominated the previous year/cycle are the ones that are typically significantly wetter and cooler than average with a much weaker Texas ridge from June to August. The wild card is if you get a tropical something to bring rain and reduced temps, which is always possible. And in a few very rare cases like for example all of July 2002, those weak landfalling tropical systems can become stuck between two ridges with weak summer steering currents and park over Texas and dump a month of monsoon-like rain that completely floods places like San Antonio. But that's an exceptional case.

Generally speaking when you have an El Nino develop from out of a La Nina during the springtime, you don't see the effects of the new El Nino until the late fall and winter. We will likely see a wetter than average winter in 2023-24 with an increased chance of ice and snow compared to average. But still, since it's Texas, most of the precip will fall in the form of rain. Typically El Nino winters are more rainy than they are ultra-cold for Texas, because the signature El Nino monsoon trough (subtropical jet) doesn't give the area many opportunities for large-scale high pressure ridges to come settle in and cause raditional cooling, the kind of extreme cooling that caused all the outages in say, Feb. 2021.

[Millennial_Messiah]

From every Youtube streamer I've seen who is a legit meteorologist, for this summer of 2023:

Texas and the Central Plains will still be average to above average in terms of temperature and average to below average in terms of precipitation.

The Northeast USA and most of the East Coast will be both cooler and wetter.

The Southeast and Florida will be about average in temperature and rain.

The Upper Midwest USA / most of the rust belt will be cooler and drier.

The northern Plains will be cooler and wetter, with an enhanced risk of severe weather around Iowa, southern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin.

The interior Mountain West and the Pacific Northwest will be much warmer AND drier than average.

Coastal California will be slightly warmer and slightly wetter than average.

The interior Southwest (southeast CA, NV, AZ, NM, southern Utah) will be slightly cooler than average and about an average amount of rain, though it will still get hot because it's the Desert Southwest.

That is that.

[baseline bum]

With the Omega Blocking pattern in place I don't foresee a wet or stormy Texas this summer.

We're not in an omega pattern any more. The omega pattern was why we had so much rain in late May and early June since storms were sneaking in from the low pressure system to the west through the bottom of the omega due to the high being way north around the Dakotas. Now we have a high just to the SW of us in Mexico that's butt ing us for the next ~10 days.

[Millennial_Messiah]

We're not in an omega pattern any more. The omega pattern was why we had so much rain in late May and early June since storms were sneaking in from the low pressure system to the west through the bottom of the omega due to the high being way north around the Dakotas. Now we have a high just to the SW of us in Mexico that's butt ing us for the next ~10 days.

On the bright side, to the SW of us in Mexico is typically where the nasty late spring storms that are often severe and tornadic come from... think the last Super El Nino year 1997 and the Jarrell tornado... late May 1997... so yeah, 108 degree highs next week suck but they're better than extended power outages, hail-dented cars, and risk of having your house torn apart like a house of cards by a tornado. Also, we've had way too much damn rain already this spring, and we've already s ed out $210 just this year alone on five... FIVE... lawn mowings after only having had to get the goddamn lawn mowed once last spring.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Last day of double digit temps for at least a couple weeks today (Monday). Enjoy!

[RodNIc91]

Yep. Just a terrible State to live year-round, tbh...

Weather, beaches and people-wise, hard to beat California, but you have to afford living here.

For international-style living, both NY and NJ (slightly cheaper) are good options in the NE, though snow sucks. The NW also has some good options in Seattle/Portland, but depends where.

The whole income taxes thing is a bit overrated as well, generally you get paid more in places like California or New York, because the expectation is that you'll afford those taxes.

Hey Nono, what's up? What would be the minimum required to be able to live in California?