Dallas, Texas

Dallas is fairly high tech. There are a lot of high tech companies here with some even calling Dallas their corporate headquarters. Some big names are Nortel, Cisco and EDS. You can live outside Dallas fairly "cheap". I just bought a brand new 2600sq ft home for $130,000 but I'm about 45 minutes north of Dallas. That is ok because a lot of the high tech companies are located in North Dallas. I just got DSL about a week ago and I'm loving it. I was beginning to think I was going to have to invest in a dish. There is also a local wireless company that offers internet access if your house has an unobstruted view of their tower. They claim it is as fast as a regular network connection. A couple of reviews I read said it was as fast as a cable connection with no slow down. The $69/month price was just too high for me. There are also 2 computers shows each month that will keep you broke. Usually you can find deals that beat mailorder prices by a few bucks. As for schools, good luck. My wife is a school teacher and works in our district and the kids are horrible. I think they are a bunch of rich brats. Texas tends to rank low nationally for education but I really don't think there school systems are any worse than any other states. I think they just have some student situations that other states don't have to deal with.

One good thing - No state income tax - bad thing - High property tax. I was paying $200 a year in Louisiana property tax, and now I'm paying over $200 a month in Texas.


Doug