40% less salary to have a comparable standard of living from Los Angeles, CA to Dallas, TX. I have a feeling the family instead of curbing their spending bought a bigger, better home above and beyond their real means.

Utilities in Texas cost 2.2% more, Groceries 9.6% less in Texas, Housing 71% less in Texas, Transportation 9.3% less (remember CA has the highest gas prices it hit about $4.80/gallon for them earlier this summer), and 5.5% less healthcare.

That couple has no excuse really.

Because imagine paying $10k in state taxes on a $100k salary in CA, not an unreasonable income and your taxes are 10%. Make $100k in Tx and you are going to pay Zero.

In Texas they paid $8k for their property taxes on maybe a $300k home, but they even said cost more than $900k. So in CA, rebuying an equivalent home will make property taxes about 1.5% = $13.5k. You have to compare apples to apples. Same home costs probably 3x as much. So they just saved a huge chunk in home value and property taxes.

Their $3k/year property taxes I am guessing was on a home about $250k in CA, and because of proposition 13, it never goes up.

But this family honestly in Texas is driving cars and buying homes I bet they can’t afford. They were deeply in debt in CA and still have a mortgage in Texas though they made enough to pay off their debts and put down a DP. They likely doubled or tripled their home value in CA during their years of ownership.

Yowsa.

I think I would consider the midwest or maybe even the mid South. The Carolina’s, Tennessee and so forth. Moderate temps for the most part, laid back lifestyles, lower cost of living overall and low tases

Here’s a link to the story http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/2008-08-17-frugal-families_N.htm

And you could consider Florida. I don’t really consider Florida East Cost. And there’s no income taxes, laid-back mindset, real estate at a bargain right now.