Listen now to discover where the Top 5 cities in Texas are!
Show highlights include:
- Why niche.com thinks The Woodlands is the best city for you to live in America ([1:39])
- How having a legendary reenactment in Settler’s Park each year lets you participate in Texan history ([4:28])Living in a great city is knowing your neighbors, having great restaurants close, and feeling part of the community.
- But it’s hard to find the right city, especially if you’ll commit by moving across the country.
- That’s why in this episode a Texan put together a list of the Top 5 best cities to live in Texas. Each city has its own unique story.
- Why living off of the Chisholm Trail in the Wild Wild West lets you enjoy this part of Texas known as Hell’s Half Acre ([6:59])
- How a Roman Catholic city struggling to grow gives you the best opportunity to live in ([10:14])
- Why splitting your time between two major cities lets you experience more of the Texas traditions ([13:19])
Transcript:
You think I’d say San Antonio, but I’m actually not going to say San Antonio
Do you want a wealthy retirement without worrying about money? So welcome to the Retire In Texas Podcast, where you will discover how to enjoy your faith, your family, and your freedom in the state of Texas. And now here’s your host, financial advisor, author, and all-around good Texan, Darryl Lyons.
([00:28]): Welcome to the retirement and Texas podcast. My name is Darryl Lyons. I’m the co-founder of PAX financial group in San Antonio, Texas PAX financial group is the sponsor of this program. Visit them@paxfinancialgroup.com. I need to give you the legal disclosure. This material contains general information only is not intended to provide specific investment tax or legal advice. Visit PAX financial group.com for more information, investment advisory services offered through PAX financial group, LLC. Okay, so this is a fun show. Top five cities to retire in Texas debatable. Right? I love it because this is my opinion. And I am an expert, in my opinion, all of these cities have to have over a hundred thousand residents. Okay. That’s the key. So that way I did that because I really, the small towns are tough. You know, I don’t go to Canton, Texas, and I would probably be most biased and Bernie to have Bernie as the number one.
([01:19]): But I thought, you know, let me have a minimum number of residents cause I can probably I’ve been there or at least no of those cities. And so to meet the criteria of this list, two things, you have to have a hundred thousand residents. You have to be in Texas, and we’re going to do this in a top five countdown format. Number five, the Woodlands. Now the Woodlands is great place. If you haven’t been there, the people are cool. I like the people there. I’ve got a lot of friends and clients there love the Woodlands. Love the trees, love the community and I’m not the only one. It was considered by niche.com, the best city to live the best city to live in America. And that crazy, the best city to live in America as 118,000 residents. It’s affordable. It’s right there in H towns right there in Houston, right in the midst of it all.
([02:10]): So you get all the Vietnamese food, Thai, Indian, Italian, crawfish, TexMex, barbecue, all the green spaces. There are parks around there. It’s really cool. Cause you get the community and then you get all the good stuff of Houston. Now you also get the bad stuff. The reason that you don’t make the number one in the list, sorry is you have the humidity, right. That stinks, but it’s still cool. There’s just a lot of stuff around there. You do have the space station. Don’t forget about that. Right around the corner, oil and gas. So lot of industry refineries and oil and gas, just a great place to find a job. If you want to work part-time and retirement. Plenty of business going on there. Yeah. I mean, I’m talking a little bit, both sides of my mouth here because I’m talking about the good and the bad.
([02:53]): I mean, you’ve got the hurricanes, right? But hurricanes aren’t extremely prevalent. I mean, I know they happen the Houston area, but it’s not crazy all the time. But when they do happen like Harvey in 2017, they have been pretty big. Don’t forget. It’s Houston Woodlands are in Houston. So Houston is the fourth biggest city in the country. So you’re going to deal with all the traffic on six, 10 and the loop. And so the Woodlands is considered kind of the inner Looper area. But you know, if you’re in the Woodlands, you can creep over to NASA or clear lake or even Galveston, which is beautiful little area, great fishing over there. And remember that Houston is the medical hub of the world. I mean, you know, when it comes to cancer treatment, Houston second to none. So in terms of medicine, you’ve got it.
([03:48]): Even there in the Woodlands, you’ve got the Houston Methodist, Woodlands, Texas children, hospital Woodlands. You’re going to have the best medicine in the world right there in your backyard. Plenty of sports. I mean, Houston Astros Texans, lots of colleges, rice university. And you’ve got the Houston livestock show, which is, I believe it’s the biggest in the country. And I think it’s a little bit understated that there’s greenery in that area. There’s a lot of parks and wildlife. So lots of churches, good people. I’ve always enjoyed the Woodlands. I think it’s a great place. It feels different than Houston. So that’s my five. That’s my number five Woodlands. Let me jump to number four. Number four, a little history here. There’s a guy named Sam bass who was an outlaw and had a famous shootout with the sheriff Grimes. And in this shootout is reenacted every year and thousands of people go to old settler’s park to participate in this reenactment.
([04:52]): And that happens in the metropolis of round rock. Now round rock is right next to Austin. And if people don’t know, Austin is really close to Texas. Austin is weird, man. I’m telling you, but I love my friends in Austin. I love this beautiful, but it’s just different. It’s just different than Texas and round rock is just north of Austin. So you get all the cool things of Austin, like all the music vibe, which is off the charts, all the cool college scenes and great food, but you’re in a different community. Round rock and money.com said this was the number two spot to live in the country. That’s pretty cool. And I could see why there’s lots of jobs there. And if you’re going to retire there and you want to work, part-time, you’re not going to have a problem finding a job. There are great sports.
([05:47]): The round rock express is really popular. They’ve got this, multi-purpose complex there for rugby and lacrosse and Frisbee, ultimate Frisbee, some kind of alternative. I say alternative sports because in Texas it’s football, everything else is alternative, right? So that’s kind of cool. And if you’re active outdoors, this is a great place. And they even have this family water park it’s called rock and river water park. I haven’t been there, but everyone that’s gone has loved it. And don’t forget about golf. If you’re a golfer, Austin rocks, the golf really magazine said, it’s one of the best in America. Yeah, I’m reading it here. It’s number one. And I’ll put the link in the show notes. Number one in America and the Omni Barton Creek, which is just, it’s not round rock, but it’s an Austin. It’s a beautiful golf resort. Love it. There. Lots of lakes, lots of rivers, live music, Austin city limits, just really a cool place to live.
([06:39]): It’s growing fast and it’s getting very expensive, but I think round rock is a good alternative to Austin and living there will get you a little bit out of the craziness of Austin and into a little bit more of a community. That’s my number four. So number five was the Woodland’s number four round rock number three. So this little town started out as kind of a point for trails for taking Longhorns from Texas to Kansas Cowboys, firing their pistols in the air and saloons and red light districts. Actually at one time, it was called hell’s half acre cause it was just the wild wild west. And what happened was is this, this Chisholm trail kind of went through this town at the same, or I guess around the same time, there was some oil booms just around it. And it became kind of a central hub for these oil boons.
([07:33]): And there was this a hotel there called the Westbrook hotel that would host a lot of the landmen and the operators and promoters and speculators. And people just started to show up at this town and there was begin to develop some refineries for the oil and gas. And then in the twenties, they started to build up some more of the infrastructure. Some pipelines course, you, then you have bank deposits and big office buildings, and then you get homes. I mean, that’s just kinda how it went when you just went from the wild, wild west Chisholm trail, Longhorns to oil and gas, Texas tea, to refineries, to pipelines, to banks, to big office buildings, homes. I mean, that’s just the story behind Fort Worth, Texas. And so Fort Worth are number three on this list. And my friends Dallas has an apology to you, but if you look at Dallas relative to Fort Worth, you’ve got a lot more concentration in Dallas.
([08:29]): So there’s a lot more people in Dallas and a smaller landmass. And so as a result, it feels a little bit more tight to live in Dallas than in Fort Worth. There’s just a different feel. And if you live in the DFW area, Dallas Fort Worth area, you know, there’s different culture of Fort Worth people versus Dallas people. It’s kind of strange because you think, okay, it’s all Texas, but is it different culture, different Texas culture? I think Fort Worth has just a little less concrete, little less competition, little less rush rents cheaper in Fort Worth and in Dallas and pretty good employment too. I mean, you’ve got American airlines. They’re Lockheed Martin. If you need to work, part-time are you. And when I talk about employment, you know, and I talk about these big companies, you may not want to work for the big company, but there’s plenty of suppliers and small businesses that support these bigger companies.
([09:17]): So finding these part-time jobs, maybe something that you’re looking for in retirement, like I said, Dallas is great, but it has a half a million more people in the same landmass. So I prefer Fort Worth and you’ve got the Fort Worth stockyards. Yeah. Rodeo live music, cattle Longhorns. The, one of the things I didn’t know was 60% of America’s money is actually minted in Fort Worth at the U S bureau of engraving and printing for a little fun. You got Texas motor Speedway NASCAR, and of course you could fly over or drive over to Dallas and see the Cowboys play over there. So plenty of things to do in Fort Worth love my friends in Dallas, but I got Fort Worth here at number three. And I want to make sure that you get a chance to grab our eBook, retiring texas@paxfinancialgroup.com. I want to nudge you that way.
([10:01]): I also want to remind you that wherever you move to, to retire in Texas, you’re going to be okay because good people find good people wherever they go. So if you don’t end up moving in one of these top five cities and you move somewhere else, good people find good people. So you’ll be just fine. Number two, the town of Corpus Christi. I actually love, I love going to Corpus Christi and it’s not necessarily always Corpus Christi, but there’s some peripheral towns that are really close, like port Aransas and Rockport. That kind of, I think about Corpus Christi. And I think about the whole area. Believe it or not, Corpus Christi is the eighth largest city in Texas and it has 300,000 people. It’s always struggled to make a name for itself. It’s always struggled to get that thriving metropolis. And I believe we may be on the cusp of seen that’s day.
([10:50]): What happened during COVID is nobody could really travel, but people were bored and they wanted vacations. So as things started to open up a little bit, many people went down to Corpus port Aransas, Rockport, north Padre, Mustang island, kind of all community kind of thing. And people started to buy houses on the beach and around the beach and off of canals. And then people with real money went down there and started to buy houses and rebuild them and make them beautiful. And as a result, prices have gone up, but not only that is the money flow has worked in such a way that you’re starting to see some really cool food places come to go down there. A lot of good momentum going into that greater Corpus Christi area. So even though it struggled over the years to get traction, we may see the whole area start to become what it can, the potential that it has.
([11:43]): It really started out as a Roman Catholic city town long time ago. And it’s been around since 15, 19 and took on the name of the body of Christ, Corpus Christi. So really good people, good fishing community. If you like fishing, you want to retire as a fishermen. This is the place to be. Winter is nice in Corpus Christi, you know, relative to Fort Worth Fort Worth, you’re going to get some cold weather and Corpus. Your cold is relative. It’s not too bad. The last 125 years, there’s only been three major hurricanes that have impacted Corpus Christi. And I don’t really know why that is. Maybe some people know why the water or the temperature humidity or whatever kind of forces things to move up to maybe Galveston area or even Louisiana, but Corpus doesn’t get hit as much. And a lot of the city leaders have designed the body of water in such a way with a wall that really protects much of the city and the great seafood, very relaxed laid back.
([12:44]): Interestingly enough, in 2019, CNBC said Corpus was one of the top 10 places to retire in the south. There’s the Texas state aquarium, not too far down at south Padre island. If you want to party on spring break with the teenagers, I love the USS Lexington, really understated museum. If you’re gonna retire and you love history, you can just work there. It’s amazing. And like I said, the peripheral towns of north Padre island, rock port, Puerto Ricans of south Padre island, they’re all quaint. They’re all growing. And if you like fishing and you want a laid-back lifestyle, low cost of living number two is Corpus Christi. Okay. Drum roll please. Number one, top city to live in in Texas top city to retire in Texas. Let me make sure I’m clear here. You think I’d say San Antonio, but I’m actually not going to say San Antonio.
([13:30]): Why? Because I don’t live in San Antonio anymore. I love San Antonio. Love my spurs. Everything about San Antonio. I love, but I don’t live there anymore. I live in new Braunfels. So my number one place to retire as new Braunfels, Texas, why it’s just a great community, man. I mean, I just love it. It’s kind of got all the luxuries of the big city. You’re right down the road from San Antonio, frankly. You’re not far from Austin. So you get all the great things of San Antonio. If you want to go downtown, it’s not too difficult. And if you wanted to creep up to Austin for some live music, or even if you’re going to retire and want to work in Austin or be a part of that community who Broncos, isn’t too bad and you’ve got some great water activities, the Comal river and the Guadalupe river, right in new Braunfels, you’ve got canyon lake right up the road, fly fishing, tubing, swimming, slitter.
([14:20]): Bon is the one of the biggest water parks in the country. It’s amazing. In fact, if you live in new Braunfels, it’s not much of a challenge to cut over through Seguin. I tend to hit Houston. So really when you look at new Braunfels, you can hit San Antonio, Austin to Houston really well. So again, I mentioned Seguin. Seguin is getting a ton of business because it’s really the easiest place to go for business for manufacturing business, to, to ship to Houston and San Antonio. Seguin is getting a ton of new businesses, plants, and manufacturing, but then people are living in new Braunfels. So that’s the interesting thing. The businesses are going to see gain, but many people are living in new Braunfels because it’s such a cool community. If you haven’t been to green, it’s a district in new Braunfels that will sell you alone.
([15:09]): It’s great food, great wine, great community, great music, lots of tradition, Germantown green. It’s not a town. It’s a district of new Braunfels. There’s a drive-in theater. There are natural bridge caverns, which is right at the road. I love the food. Gris mill dues love the history. It’s growing off the top. It’s one of the best places to live money magazine. And frankly, it’s considered one of the fastest growing places in the country. The Texas water development board showed that the population between Austin and San Antonio corridor, it’s going to catapult between 2014 and 2030. There’s going to be over a million people that will live in between Austin and San Antonio. New Braunfels is in the thick of it. So if you’re going to retire in Texas, I’m going to recommend that you retire in new Braunfels and you get here now because people are moving here.
([16:00]): The prices are going up and there’s still a lot of great little communities to live in. I think you’re going to love it. So that’s my top five, very controversial. I know some people are going to kick me in the rear end because I didn’t put their city on it. But number five is the Woodlands number four round rock number three, Fort Worth. Number two, Corpus Christi and number one, new Braunfels also known as new brawn, bells. Hope this was helpful. Hope you retire in Texas. Make sure you grab our eBook retire in Texas. And remember you think different when you think long-term,
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References:
*https://www.after55.com/blog/houston-retirement-guide-pros-cons/
https://www.lifestorage.com/blog/moving/moving-to-houston/
https://www.after55.com/blog/houston-retirement-guide-pros-cons/
https://www.lifestorage.com/blog/moving/moving-to-houston/
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