As a Texan, I can give some commentary about the town's you've listed. I've lived near or been through the towns very, very often growing up. But please remember that Texas is a very gun friendly state. If you see someone carrying a firearm, do not be alarmed as it is legally allowed here. Please go to a local gun range and take an introductory course for firearms! I promise you'd like it more than you think you would. It's truly a different way of life once you engage in gun culture down here! #5) Buffalo - accurate crime and infrastructure explanation. The weather is generally mild in the winter and a normal Texas summer being hot and humid between 10am and 5pm with less hot and just as humid between 5pm and 10am. #4) Honey Grove - Nice little place, quiet and not a sundown town like some people seem to think. Low crime, decent infrastructure and good job opportunities for young people with retirees and remote workers having no real issues, besides the Starlink vs. DSL issue lol. #3) Port Isabel - I hope you like the humidity from an ocean breeze, tacos and tequila. It's a wonderful place with good infrastructure, decent healthcare, close enough to the border to go shopping on the weekend for cheap prices in Mexico. It's awesome for a small beach community, but do prepare for hurricanes. #2) Ganado - Small and quiet, definitely a place for people that like the western feel or more relaxed, slower lifestyle. Remote workers that want to keep to themselves would love it. #1) Sonora - Great small town. I've contemplated moving there myself just for the slower pace of life while still having good access to healthcare, internet, etc.
Hey Dubya, I carry a gun too, but not open carry, as I'm kinda shy about doing that. I conceal carry it in my pants, commando style.... Sometimes, I like to pull it outta my pants and lovingly rub on its barrel 'till it shoots off
Every town in Texas is a sundown town I don't care. there's gonna be a small group of klansmen in every small town that has connections to local government.
Sonora rocks. We have nature trails, great home cooking restaurants, fabulous museums, a top notch health care facility and hospital. At crossroads of I10 and 277. We have The Caverns of Sonora too...world famous.
I'm sorry, but 80 percent of the towns are in East Texas. You should have done 5 rural towns east of I35 and then 5 west of I35. My home town of Ballinger, west, has interesting stories like Bonnie and Clyde started just outside of town, The Newton Boys ( Matthew McConaughey true story movie) robbed their last bank here, the person who wrote Home on the Range was from here and one of the most haunted places is here.
So sorry to hear you have Covid again. I pray you get completely well very soon! I live in Texas and I have not heard of some of these towns. This was very informative. Thank you for the video! God Bless😊💝
Ive lived in a small rural Texas town for 12 years, and things are turning around. Land is being bought up left and right, split up into smaller acreage and being sold for ridiculous amounts, and people are paying it. I can tell Traffic, car accidents, crime and litter are already increasing. Please leave your bad habits in the cities you abandoned, or go home. Just something I’ve noticed in the last 2 years.
I Should also mention our electric grid can’t keep up with the demand of population increase, so now for the first time we are experiencing electricity blackouts. And our aquifers may actually dry up if we experience a hard drought.
@@joshbanker8743 Bertram Since my original comment, the school was forced to expand to accommodate the population increase, new RV parks neighborhoods and houses are all under construction. And families and people I’ve known for years are packing up and moving, they’re not much liking the unnatural growing population.
You sounded congested in this video. I was going to wish you well. I noticed that the comment below said you have had Covid twice. I hope you make a full recovery! Thanks for all your hard work through this trying time...
East texas is very nice and selling like crazy . Livingston (has second largest lake in Texas) to Woodville and to Lufkin (close to beautiful lake Sam Rayburn) areas have heavily wooded and hilly terrains . Medical and internet are improving quickly . Was and still Is one of the last best land deals around . With the hill country and north Texas bulging at the seams east Texas is a pretty alternative. But that’s changing fast too.
My family is from East Texas (Mineola, Lone Oak), great area. I wish I could talk my wife into leaving California, I would head to East Texas. The weather isn;t always the greatest, but the fishing is awesome.
@@gottadrivem5878 I moved from Chicago to Longview in 1977 since it had a booming economy and is located in the wettest part of the state. Drove thru Texas earlier in the Spring and noticed that everything was brown due to drought except for East Texas. Now I live by Lake o' the Pines where one can buy land and homes for less due to being economically depressed since Lone Star Steel closed down decades ago.
It must be tough when at first your employer says "Hey if you want to work from home and only come into the office once every quarter or so that's fine by me " and then after you bought a house hundreds of miles away thinking you'll be a remote worker mostly suddenly he says "IF you want to keep your job you have to do at least 40 hours a week in house"... Now what ?
@@andrewquint7962 That would be because they had compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions. To those, like myself, who are not compromised, it was nothing more than the sniffles and a minor annoyance.
I have only lived in Ganado (second A is a long A) for 6 months, but I have yet to find those mountains. Also, never been to Honey Grove, but I have not seen mountains in north Texas either. The reason people correct you is that there are numerous errors in your videos...but I still like them even though they are not totally accurate.
Yes those are probably not even Texas mountains. having lived most of my life in North Texas or on the Gulf Coast , I have never seen more than lush rolling hills East of I 35. The hill country is rocky but the Mountains don't start til you get to Big Bend area and El Paso.
I like your videos, Briggs, 'been subscribed a long time. But a great town for me right now is any place that has a cheap, reasonably price house i can buy. These hyperinflated house prices are leaving me no choice but to leave my home state. I think the camper and RV nomads have it right-- "Just say no." (as Nancy Reagan advised).
I once paid a visit to Sonora, TX for work. The thing that stuck out to me, is that at the company I was visiting, very few of the people who worked there were local. The company had a daily shuttle that brought most of them in from San Angelo about an hour north.
@@texaskidzuk There are zillions of small towns that provide "jobs". This video was about small towns to retire in. An ugly town is not my idea of a place to retire. Sonora may have very nice people. But esthetically the parts of Sonora I have seen are downright ugly.
I've been to Port Isabel several times over the years and have considered moving there myself. It is a definite possibility. It is connected to South Padre by a bridge over the ocean and has a lot more going on than any of the other towns mentioned. It is about a third of the cost to buy than South Padre. It is as far south as Miami so expect the same temps.
I lived in Buffalo, TX on a work assignment for about 7 months (2019). It is indeed a nice enough town. There are a couple good restaurants there, but my biggest complaint is that there are no bars there. The two Mexican restaurants kinda serve as the de facto bars, which worked out fine enough, but don't really qualify for me as bars. There is a night club open on weekends, but I went back to Houston where I live on weekends. Most of the people I met there are very nice and welcoming.
That's due to the local residents voting to keep their precincts dry. Some will allow beer, wine and set-ups to be sold in restaurants and liquor in private clubs. Many of the residents have a drink every now and then at home so drive to the county line where several liquor stores are located along a busy highway or a wet precinct that's closer that has liquor stores and a few dives.
A lot of that land was selling for $300 to $1000 per acre 44 years ago so was snapped up by wealthy local residents that then leased the acreage to nearby farmers and ranchers as they waited for urban sprawl to reach their area. My friends did that in NWI during the mid-70's by buying up small farms in southern Lake and Porter Counties from their elderly owners. They updated the old farmhouses to live in then put in roads, water lines and an aerobic septic system for a trailer park so lot rents could pay for that and the farm. They leased the land to Pioneer for growing corn for seed that brought in additional income. Urban sprawl reached their areas in the late 90's as new housing developments started going up in their area. So far they've haven't sold any land to developers as their values continue to rise but have built small strip malls themselves on the corners of now busy streets where their kids run gas stations, small grocery stores and a pizza place that delivers. Behind those they've built self-storage units and larger building for storing boats and RV trailer campers.
Seriously depends on the area. All the Californians have jacked up land prices around Austin and some other areas because they are willing to buy at California like prices. Even plain farm land is getting bought up by greedy investors.
Port Isabel is just an awesome place. Was there several years ago for work (phone company contract employee) and wish I had never had to leave...it felt like Gilligan's island only nobody was interested in trying to get off the island. Just such a "chill" place
@@z-z-z-z the golf course...God, help me but the golf course captured me and held me spellbound...forget the lagoon I "balled" every hole on the course
We have a family ranch located about 10 miles from Buffalo, TX. Buffalo has grown quite a bit in the last 15 years, for the better. Not sure we'll ever live up there full time, but who knows? Nice video.
@@EFran-qg6bp it’s not very nice when Cali people come over and change our state. Raising our housing market and outbidding everyone. Everywhere I look there are new houses being built just like California box style with price tags of $800k in a low income neighborhood. There’s Tesla’s and Prius everywhere too.
@@thelawnguy7373 I feel your pain but sometimes we can't control what's going on around us. And, best not to assume all Californians are the same. Thanks
Nacogdoches Texas is where it’s at!! University town beautiful area reasonable housing prices schools are great low or no crime. Medical is very good. Oldest town in Texas with great history. Downtown is cool.
Briggs next series of videos do up an coming cities an towns of each state. So not just ones good to move to. But good ones to invest in the community or bring a business there for good treatment an living what’s a growing town that I may want to grow in
People need to check out the local water supply if they're considering moving to Texas. Many of the popular regions rely upon wells that tap aquifers which are recharged by rainfall. Many of those regions experience droughts so are placed on water usage restrictions when the level in the aquifers reach a certain level. That's due to the aquifers feeding springs that merge to make rivers that provide water for towns, cities and ag irrigation downstream. Then you have cities like San Antonio that ran a water pipeline 90 miles to a rural region where their wells are lowering the level of the aquifer by 10 feet each year. The region's residents now have to spend $4,000 to $5,000 to have their water wells drilled deeper thanks to San Antonio growing water needs. I'm sure more of the growing cities in the Hill Country will be doing the same thing fairly soon to keep people moving in.
Great video, and interesting picks for small town Texas. Covid again?? This is why the jab was a bad idea. It points your immune system to the first strain of Covid only. That’s it. Us that didn’t get the jab and got Covid don’t keep getting it. Sorry you have to go through it again. Stay healthy!
I'm sorry you have covid take care of yourself and thank you for covering my home state I've been here 60 years and have only heard of 2 of those towns so it's easy very interesting, feel better soon 🙏
I love Sonora. I went there a few times as a kid to see relatives. I've thought about retiring there eventually. They had a bad flood in 2018. Took them quite a long time to recover from it. Other than that, it's a great place.
They had a bad flood in 2018. --------------------------------------------- The Dry Devils River? What I have seen of Sonora is everything along highway 277, on the south side of town. I would hope other parts of Sonora are nicer.
I've been fishing in Port Isabel since the 60s and wish I could upload a picture of 50+ "Whiting" I caught one moring in about 3 1/2 hrs. This is the place to move to if you like saltwater fishing year round.
I'm asking again Briggs ... begging you actually,,, please include the distance to the nearest Walmart. That may sound trivial / but I assure you that it's not.
FYI, from a 1965 Graduate of Ganado High School, it is a nice quiet community, the name was Spanish, but has englished over the years and is pronounced GaNADO. The theatre has been closed for a few years during COVID, but the owner is an older gentleman and I'm not sure he is or will be able to reopen any time soon, if ever! A good clean town with new schools and a stable population!!!
Just be sure you have your own backup generator and fuel for a month as well as bulletproofing on house and car. And a pickup truck if you don't want to be run off the road. Tattered flag optional.
I love stumbling across videos like this and learning about what towns you think are the best to retire or live or whatever.. and some of your filler shots i could see that were of far west Texas in the Big Bend area.. I grew up in the best little town in Texas called Alpine and all though i now reside in Dallas i would still move back and retire there.. Health care is great and crime is low. so keep up what you are doing but go west and check it out.
I live in Venus Texas it's never mentioned but it's still a good town low crime rate a lot of people are moving out here but I live on the outskirts on farm and ranch Land. maypearl Texas is also good it looks like you're going out to the wild West in that town Midlothian Texas waxahachie Texas has Baylor Scott & Wyatt Methodist hospital and basically every business out here is hiring
Mabank, Texas and Gun Barrel City on Cedar Creek Lake, are both growing like crazy, (especially with retirement age) but they both still have a rural small town feel with all of the shopping you may need and a nice ER, and there are several good internet options.
Like watching your texas videos. I'm an old texas Grammy lived here all my life except a few teen years in Alamogordo NM. My home town is Big Spring in west texas. Never on any list but it's unique. Not flat like most of west texas. South mountain has private golf course, scenic mountain has small park on top and lots of walkers. And Comanche Trail city park with outdoor amphitheater and public golf. There's also a VA hospital. Not sure about schools, so better for retirees.
A large chunk of East Texas is connected to the central grid. We have gas-fired generation plants fueled by NG from our many NG fields plus coal-fired plants that burn lignite from nearby strip mines. We get from 45 to 60 inches of rain each year so have plenty of lakes and ground water.
Thank you so much for providing this information! I’m planning on retiring in three years ( @ 66 or hopefully earlier). We currently live in Melbourne Florida, however contrary to rumor, due to expensive healthcare, now higher taxes & cost of living , and overcrowding…. I don’t consider this a good retirement state so we’re evaluating our options which provides us where we will be able to live on what we will have money wise. So far , Sonora has got my attention ( I lived in Del Rio long ago for two years so I’m familiar with that part of Texas…). V/R Pat Lis
Mr. Briggs, Sorry to hear you have Covid again. I hope you get feeling better soon. I know what it's like to be out of breath, but I have COPD. Anyway, take care of yourself and do what your doctor says.
I like Honey Grove and miss driving through there since they bypassed it with 4 lane US 82. When I have time after appointments at VA in Bonham , I take the time to reminisce the almost weekly trips from Ft Worth to Paris in the seventies when I was at Carswell AFB. It’s hwy 56 now . There seems to be a lot of job opportunities there due to solar farm projects and a new lake. I’m afraid a Mc Mansion ghetto will infect the area since it’s within daily driving distance from north Dallas,Collin , Denton counties. I think you overestimate the real estate prices but,being upper middle low class by birth and preference, I would be satisfied with what I could buy for $100K.
The proper pronunciation of Ganado is your second (long second a). Yes, the ONE person is correct. But that pronunciation is only used by locals so we can tell ourselves from out of area types. Ganado is, as is Pt. Isabel, on the coast, so in hurricane alley. Build/buy with that in mind - it should make property less.
Hi Briggs. Bit of a shocker there at the end. Hoping you're doing ok and taking a bit of a break. I enjoy the hell out of your videos but if it takes a bit of time for the craft beers to start smelling good and tasting better then so be it.
I hope you're all better soon. As always Mr. BRIGGS, very informative and extremely hilarious. I'm always thoroughly entertained. You're almost as funny as the piraticians that govern Baltimore, only a lot more intelligent. 😉
I'm looking at Gatesville area but I don't want the prices to go up! Jefferson is a tourist town. With not much unless you just like a little artsy/historical place with antiques. :) Nacogdoches is not bad if you can handle the humidity.
Can we do a video thats like "so you live in a small town near Houston... Now the rising population is essentially causing a gentrification. Where can you still rent under $1000 and comfortably commute to town?" We can put like Huntsville and Porter on the list and then go around in a circle from there. (Im really looking for the nw answer bc montgomery does NOT cut it. And ill have to give up on my hometown of Willis at some point with 45 guiding so many people to what WAS a very small town.)
barrel City in Henderson county in my taxes for an eighth of an acre with a two bedroom two bath single wide mobile home last year was $1,500 this year it jumped up to $3,500 so what's up with that
Yeah, nah, Can't say I agree with this. Yeah, crime rate is important, but what about amenities? Sitting at home all day on the internet isn't what retiree's do.
even though im from houston and rockport slash corpus and formally from oak brook chicago thanks to vegas nevada the western us is cool in my book despite small popular cities and towns in the east like miami orlando lake charles and gulf shores alabama other than san diego vegas and phoenix and reno grand junction flagstaff jackpot nevada marfa alpine odessa san angelo and fort stockton are okay for small towns dodge city is okay scottsbluff is okay rapid city is okay medora and bismarck are okay great falls is okay rock springs wyoming ely nevada el paso and honolulu and anchorage is okay so yeah i love the west because of good weather despite some cool stuff in the east like orlando atlantic city lake charles. miami and orlando but if choose vegas over tampa vegas definitely
Hopefully you are feeling better by the time you are reading this. Those people that like to chew your butt out for whatever reason need to learn to scroll on. Just tell them to kiss your butt and block them. I was watching a video yesterday where you clearly explained something towards the beginning and then someone was chewing you out because they didn't listen. Apparently they should learn to listen and some manners.(they definitely didn't hear the end were you say be nice to one another) Never ceases to amaze me how stupid, rude, and entitled our country has become.
Why do you add clips of mountains & desert in this video around the coastal cities? Those clips are nowhere near the towns you were referring to when the mountains clip popped up. Lol😊
I think Canadian would be a good place to research. I drive through there often and love the landscape, the remoteness and weather. You get four seasons, I bet.
Well, you have a valid point, but remember that there is no state Income Tax in Texas, and you can qualify for various exemptions that can lower your taxes. Pay attention to school zones. I moved to another part of the same town and my taxes went up by quite a bit simply because I changed school districts.
If you're wanting to move to Texas move to the Panhandle. Many of beautiful places to move and real estate is affordable! Don't move anywhere other than the Panhandle it's no good.
Don’t listen to that guy. If you really planning to relocate, take some vacation time, visit the place several times in different seasons, talk to locals, start gathering information from different sources. According to this guy, my place would be a Paradise, low crime rate, well, that is because police doesn’t arrest anyone for non violent crimes and misdemeanors, and doing crapy paperwork, missing case files, etc. You will pay arm and leg for great medical services and good speed internet… And you better see in person houses that are cheap in our area. One of them, as example, very beautiful, standing just few feet from a freeway and few yards from line of high voltage. You will never see these on realtors pictures…
As a Texan, I can give some commentary about the town's you've listed. I've lived near or been through the towns very, very often growing up. But please remember that Texas is a very gun friendly state. If you see someone carrying a firearm, do not be alarmed as it is legally allowed here. Please go to a local gun range and take an introductory course for firearms! I promise you'd like it more than you think you would. It's truly a different way of life once you engage in gun culture down here!
#5) Buffalo - accurate crime and infrastructure explanation. The weather is generally mild in the winter and a normal Texas summer being hot and humid between 10am and 5pm with less hot and just as humid between 5pm and 10am.
#4) Honey Grove - Nice little place, quiet and not a sundown town like some people seem to think. Low crime, decent infrastructure and good job opportunities for young people with retirees and remote workers having no real issues, besides the Starlink vs. DSL issue lol.
#3) Port Isabel - I hope you like the humidity from an ocean breeze, tacos and tequila. It's a wonderful place with good infrastructure, decent healthcare, close enough to the border to go shopping on the weekend for cheap prices in Mexico. It's awesome for a small beach community, but do prepare for hurricanes.
#2) Ganado - Small and quiet, definitely a place for people that like the western feel or more relaxed, slower lifestyle. Remote workers that want to keep to themselves would love it.
#1) Sonora - Great small town. I've contemplated moving there myself just for the slower pace of life while still having good access to healthcare, internet, etc.
Good to hear the thoughts of a native Texan who really knows these towns.
What can you say about Brookeland? Next to the lake?
Your "gun culture" assertion is greatly overblown.
Hey Dubya, I carry a gun too, but not open carry, as I'm kinda shy about doing that. I conceal carry it in my pants, commando style.... Sometimes, I like to pull it outta my pants and lovingly rub on its barrel 'till it shoots off
Every town in Texas is a sundown town I don't care. there's gonna be a small group of klansmen in every small town that has connections to local government.
Sonora rocks. We have nature trails, great home cooking restaurants, fabulous museums, a top notch health care facility and hospital. At crossroads of I10 and 277. We have The Caverns of Sonora too...world famous.
I'm sorry, but 80 percent of the towns are in East Texas. You should have done 5 rural towns east of I35 and then 5 west of I35. My home town of Ballinger, west, has interesting stories like Bonnie and Clyde started just outside of town, The Newton Boys ( Matthew McConaughey true story movie) robbed their last bank here, the person who wrote Home on the Range was from here and one of the most haunted places is here.
Ballinger, Tx, where the Walmart sign is as big as the store. Been through there several times, many years ago.
I live in San Angelo, and I love Ballinger. It’s a great town.
Not to mention that the majority of the contestants on "The Jerry Springer Show" hail from East Texas... lol
@@organican No one cares what you think.
@@jimmaynard3 well, apparently you care... lol
So sorry to hear you have Covid again. I pray you get completely well very soon! I live in Texas and I have not heard of some of these towns. This was very informative. Thank you for the video! God Bless😊💝
Have you lived in the states long
I have said it before and I'll say it again. Briggs is the best on TH-cam for these kinds of awesome nerdy videos.
Also, "blood and doilies everywhere" is now one of my favorite quotes ever.
Ive lived in a small rural Texas town for 12 years, and things are turning around. Land is being bought up left and right, split up into smaller acreage and being sold for ridiculous amounts, and people are paying it. I can tell Traffic, car accidents, crime and litter are already increasing. Please leave your bad habits in the cities you abandoned, or go home. Just something I’ve noticed in the last 2 years.
Amen! All of these transplants are bringing sprawl and crime.
I Should also mention our electric grid can’t keep up with the demand of population increase, so now for the first time we are experiencing electricity blackouts. And our aquifers may actually dry up if we experience a hard drought.
Sounds like you are getting ignorant liberals moving to Texas!
@@chud-dd3tg which town I'm curious?
@@joshbanker8743 Bertram
Since my original comment, the school was forced to expand to accommodate the population increase, new RV parks neighborhoods and houses are all under construction. And families and people I’ve known for years are packing up and moving, they’re not much liking the unnatural growing population.
You sounded congested in this video. I was going to wish you well. I noticed that the comment below said you have had Covid twice. I hope you make a full recovery! Thanks for all your hard work through this trying time...
East texas is very nice and selling like crazy . Livingston (has second largest lake in Texas) to Woodville and to Lufkin (close to beautiful lake Sam Rayburn) areas have heavily wooded and hilly terrains . Medical and internet are improving quickly . Was and still Is one of the last best land deals around . With the hill country and north Texas bulging at the seams east Texas is a pretty alternative. But that’s changing fast too.
My family is from East Texas (Mineola, Lone Oak), great area. I wish I could talk my wife into leaving California, I would head to East Texas. The weather isn;t always the greatest, but the fishing is awesome.
@@gottadrivem5878 I moved from Chicago to Longview in 1977 since it had a booming economy and is located in the wettest part of the state. Drove thru Texas earlier in the Spring and noticed that everything was brown due to drought except for East Texas. Now I live by Lake o' the Pines where one can buy land and homes for less due to being economically depressed since Lone Star Steel closed down decades ago.
how is buda Texas? I'm in Michigan and we are moving to east Texas this June. we do not know where yet. but it is set in stone lol.
@@dominicpecoraro6074 Buda is considered the hill country, not east Texas .
Pretty area , can be expensive and going fast .
Any insight on the Cedar Creek Lake area?
Sonora has some of the most beautiful sunsets in Texas!
Obviously you've never watched one from the west side of the Franklin Mountains in El Paso.....
It must be tough when at first your employer says "Hey if you want to work from home and only come into the office once every quarter or so that's fine by me " and then after you bought a house hundreds of miles away thinking you'll be a remote worker mostly suddenly he says "IF you want to keep your job you have to do at least 40 hours a week in house"... Now what ?
Covid cant last forever the world still moving
@@debbiecomer594 Covid certainly can last forever. It has for 1 million Americans. They all died!
Wouldn't matter to a young retiree like me. My income comes with me wherever I go.
@@andrewquint7962 That would be because they had compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions. To those, like myself, who are not compromised, it was nothing more than the sniffles and a minor annoyance.
I have only lived in Ganado (second A is a long A) for 6 months, but I have yet to find those mountains. Also, never been to Honey Grove, but I have not seen mountains in north Texas either. The reason people correct you is that there are numerous errors in your videos...but I still like them even though they are not totally accurate.
Yes those are probably not even Texas mountains. having lived most of my life in North Texas or on the Gulf Coast , I have never seen more than lush rolling hills East of I 35. The hill country is rocky but the Mountains don't start til you get to Big Bend area and El Paso.
Born and raised in south Texas…have never heard it called Ganahdo. It’s GanAdo.
PLEASE don’t try to pronounce Placedo! Or Mexia.
@@saltydog7988YES!
I like your videos, Briggs, 'been subscribed a long time. But a great town for me right now is any place that has a cheap, reasonably price house i can buy. These hyperinflated house prices are leaving me no choice but to leave my home state. I think the camper and RV nomads have it right-- "Just say no." (as Nancy Reagan advised).
Strange you should say that. I am not ruling that out either. 👍
I once paid a visit to Sonora, TX for work. The thing that stuck out to me, is that at the company I was visiting, very few of the people who worked there were local. The company had a daily shuttle that brought most of them in from San Angelo about an hour north.
Sonora, Texas is beautiful.
@@texaskidzuk It is? Have you been to the south side of Sonora recently? There doesn't seem to be anything in that town except the petroleum industry.
@kenthompson5723 And that means jobs. There's nothing wrong with that.
@@texaskidzuk There are zillions of small towns that provide "jobs". This video was about small towns to retire in. An ugly town is not my idea of a place to retire. Sonora may have very nice people. But esthetically the parts of Sonora I have seen are downright ugly.
This is the best review I've seen about Texas so far.
I've been to Port Isabel several times over the years and have considered moving there myself. It is a definite possibility. It is connected to South Padre by a bridge over the ocean and has a lot more going on than any of the other towns mentioned. It is about a third of the cost to buy than South Padre. It is as far south as Miami so expect the same temps.
Would you consider it similar to port a?
@@patrickodell7654 Closer to Aransas that Arthur.
I lived in Buffalo, TX on a work assignment for about 7 months (2019). It is indeed a nice enough town. There are a couple good restaurants there, but my biggest complaint is that there are no bars there. The two Mexican restaurants kinda serve as the de facto bars, which worked out fine enough, but don't really qualify for me as bars. There is a night club open on weekends, but I went back to Houston where I live on weekends. Most of the people I met there are very nice and welcoming.
That's due to the local residents voting to keep their precincts dry. Some will allow beer, wine and set-ups to be sold in restaurants and liquor in private clubs. Many of the residents have a drink every now and then at home so drive to the county line where several liquor stores are located along a busy highway or a wet precinct that's closer that has liquor stores and a few dives.
When there were Blue Laws, you cant buy , Beer or Wine until after 12pm. No Hard liquor no Sundays.
$850k for 8 acres in Texas is ridiculous - normally 8 undeveloped acres is $18-22k - even developed $160k-$240k
freaking hilarious
Thank the fuckin out of staters.
A lot of that land was selling for $300 to $1000 per acre 44 years ago so was snapped up by wealthy local residents that then leased the acreage to nearby farmers and ranchers as they waited for urban sprawl to reach their area.
My friends did that in NWI during the mid-70's by buying up small farms in southern Lake and Porter Counties from their elderly owners. They updated the old farmhouses to live in then put in roads, water lines and an aerobic septic system for a trailer park so lot rents could pay for that and the farm. They leased the land to Pioneer for growing corn for seed that brought in additional income. Urban sprawl reached their areas in the late 90's as new housing developments started going up in their area. So far they've haven't sold any land to developers as their values continue to rise but have built small strip malls themselves on the corners of now busy streets where their kids run gas stations, small grocery stores and a pizza place that delivers. Behind those they've built self-storage units and larger building for storing boats and RV trailer campers.
Should be 80 acreas!
Seriously depends on the area. All the Californians have jacked up land prices around Austin and some other areas because they are willing to buy at California like prices. Even plain farm land is getting bought up by greedy investors.
Port Isabel is just an awesome place. Was there several years ago for work (phone company contract employee) and wish I had never had to leave...it felt like Gilligan's island only nobody was interested in trying to get off the island. Just such a "chill" place
Artie - were you not afraid of the headhunters? or, were you and ginger always preoccupied down at the lagoon?
@@z-z-z-z the golf course...God, help me but the golf course captured me and held me spellbound...forget the lagoon I "balled" every hole on the course
We have a family ranch located about 10 miles from Buffalo, TX. Buffalo has grown quite a bit in the last 15 years, for the better. Not sure we'll ever live up there full time, but who knows? Nice video.
Don’t mess with Texas. California stay out!!
The CA Evacuees ruined DFW and Austin already.
@@thullraven1 yup
That's not very nice. Whatever happened to Southern hospitality. I'm a decent California person.
@@EFran-qg6bp it’s not very nice when Cali people come over and change our state. Raising our housing market and outbidding everyone. Everywhere I look there are new houses being built just like California box style with price tags of $800k in a low income neighborhood. There’s Tesla’s and Prius everywhere too.
@@thelawnguy7373 I feel your pain but sometimes we can't control what's going on around us. And, best not to assume all Californians are the same. Thanks
When I had Covid I couldn’t put to word’s together. Sounds like you got a mild variant. Be thankful. You’re probably well and over it by now!
Go for some sunshine, vit.D, zinc, and some actual rest! Get well soon! 🙏🏼🤗☕
Nacogdoches Texas is where it’s at!! University town beautiful area reasonable housing prices schools are great low or no crime. Medical is very good. Oldest town in Texas with great history. Downtown is cool.
Briggs next series of videos do up an coming cities an towns of each state. So not just ones good to move to. But good ones to invest in the community or bring a business there for good treatment an living what’s a growing town that I may want to grow in
People need to check out the local water supply if they're considering moving to Texas. Many of the popular regions rely upon wells that tap aquifers which are recharged by rainfall. Many of those regions experience droughts so are placed on water usage restrictions when the level in the aquifers reach a certain level. That's due to the aquifers feeding springs that merge to make rivers that provide water for towns, cities and ag irrigation downstream. Then you have cities like San Antonio that ran a water pipeline 90 miles to a rural region where their wells are lowering the level of the aquifer by 10 feet each year. The region's residents now have to spend $4,000 to $5,000 to have their water wells drilled deeper thanks to San Antonio growing water needs. I'm sure more of the growing cities in the Hill Country will be doing the same thing fairly soon to keep people moving in.
Briggs, do you purposely post pictures of west Texas desert scenes when you're talking about east Texas? It's good for a laugh, so thanks for that.
Great video, and interesting picks for small town Texas. Covid again?? This is why the jab was a bad idea. It points your immune system to the first strain of Covid only. That’s it. Us that didn’t get the jab and got Covid don’t keep getting it. Sorry you have to go through it again. Stay healthy!
I’m in SETX in a what use to be a small town & we still have people walking around in masks.
@@perrylc8812, masks don't help. Sad.
My husband is an electrician and can probably find work anywhere. I myself work remotely.
Wishing you a speedy recovery, keep up the good work!
Can you do videos on rural towns, with good schools for young families
I'm sorry you have covid take care of yourself and thank you for covering my home state I've been here 60 years and have only heard of 2 of those towns so it's easy very interesting, feel better soon 🙏
I love Sonora. I went there a few times as a kid to see relatives. I've thought about retiring there eventually. They had a bad flood in 2018. Took them quite a long time to recover from it. Other than that, it's a great place.
They had a bad flood in 2018.
---------------------------------------------
The Dry Devils River? What I have seen of Sonora is everything along highway 277, on the south side of town. I would hope other parts of Sonora are nicer.
There is something and someplace for every taste in Texas. Great video, thanks for just increasing their inbound migration rate!
I've been fishing in Port Isabel since the 60s and wish I could upload a picture of 50+ "Whiting" I caught one moring in about 3 1/2 hrs. This is the place to move to if you like saltwater fishing year round.
Love your videos better than National Geographic
I'm asking again Briggs ... begging you actually,,, please include the distance to the nearest Walmart.
That may sound trivial / but I assure you that it's not.
That's a relative metric, especially out in the Big Bend in West Texas.
One place had Dollar General
FYI, from a 1965 Graduate of Ganado High School, it is a nice quiet community, the name was Spanish, but has englished over the years and is pronounced GaNADO. The theatre has been closed for a few years during COVID, but the owner is an older gentleman and I'm not sure he is or will be able to reopen any time soon, if ever! A good clean town with new schools and a stable population!!!
I thought the same thing!! This is coming form an industrial graduate from 2010.
Just be sure you have your own backup generator and fuel for a month as well as bulletproofing on house and car. And a pickup truck if you don't want to be run off the road. Tattered flag optional.
@@FATmenDRIVEtrucks it was very tongue and cheek. I forgot 'make sure your kids are past school age.'
I love stumbling across videos like this and learning about what towns you think are the best to retire or live or whatever.. and some of your filler shots i could see that were of far west Texas in the Big Bend area.. I grew up in the best little town in Texas called Alpine and all though i now reside in Dallas i would still move back and retire there.. Health care is great and crime is low. so keep up what you are doing but go west and check it out.
I live in Venus Texas it's never mentioned but it's still a good town low crime rate a lot of people are moving out here but I live on the outskirts on farm and ranch Land. maypearl Texas is also good it looks like you're going out to the wild West in that town Midlothian Texas waxahachie Texas has Baylor Scott & Wyatt Methodist hospital and basically every business out here is hiring
Mabank, Texas and Gun Barrel City on Cedar Creek Lake, are both growing like crazy, (especially with retirement age) but they both still have a rural small town feel with all of the shopping you may need and a nice ER, and there are several good internet options.
Thanks, Briggs! I've been waiting for this one! Been looking, bit so many have crime problems!
Hoping you feel better.Covid sticks.Go Texas.
Like watching your texas videos. I'm an old texas Grammy lived here all my life except a few teen years in Alamogordo NM. My home town is Big Spring in west texas. Never on any list but it's unique. Not flat like most of west texas. South mountain has private golf course, scenic mountain has small park on top and lots of walkers. And Comanche Trail city park with outdoor amphitheater and public golf.
There's also a VA hospital. Not sure about schools, so better for retirees.
There’s a top ten list. V.A. facilities in the country.
Dear Mr World. I think you should include water and power on your list. These things are becoming more and more important these days.
Well, there's plenty of rain and power in central, south and east Texas.
A large chunk of East Texas is connected to the central grid. We have gas-fired generation plants fueled by NG from our many NG fields plus coal-fired plants that burn lignite from nearby strip mines. We get from 45 to 60 inches of rain each year so have plenty of lakes and ground water.
Thank you so much for providing this information! I’m planning on retiring in three years ( @ 66 or hopefully earlier). We currently live in Melbourne Florida, however contrary to rumor, due to expensive healthcare, now higher taxes & cost of living , and overcrowding…. I don’t consider this a good retirement state so we’re evaluating our options which provides us where we will be able to live on what we will have money wise. So far , Sonora has got my attention ( I lived in Del Rio long ago for two years so I’m familiar with that part of Texas…).
V/R
Pat Lis
Great work here, as always Briggs! :)
Mr. Briggs, Sorry to hear you have Covid again. I hope you get feeling better soon. I know what it's like to be out of breath, but I have COPD. Anyway, take care of yourself and do what your doctor says.
I like Honey Grove and miss driving through there since they bypassed it with 4 lane US 82. When I have time after appointments at VA in Bonham , I take the time to reminisce the almost weekly trips from Ft Worth to Paris in the seventies when I was at Carswell AFB. It’s hwy 56 now .
There seems to be a lot of job opportunities there due to solar farm projects and a new lake. I’m afraid a Mc Mansion ghetto will infect the area since it’s within daily driving distance from north Dallas,Collin , Denton counties.
I think you overestimate the real estate prices but,being upper middle low class by birth and preference, I would be satisfied with what I could buy for $100K.
The proper pronunciation of Ganado is your second (long second a). Yes, the ONE person is correct. But that pronunciation is only used by locals so we can tell ourselves from out of area types. Ganado is, as is Pt. Isabel, on the coast, so in hurricane alley. Build/buy with that in mind - it should make property less.
Please do same kind of video for Missouri. Thanks
Hey Dude!
Good Job!!
Excellent presentation currently living lake livingston area
Stop giving people ideas. We are getting full here and our housing prices are skyrocketing along with taxes.
Hi Briggs. Bit of a shocker there at the end. Hoping you're doing ok and taking a bit of a break. I enjoy the hell out of your videos but if it takes a bit of time for the craft beers to start smelling good and tasting better then so be it.
Briggs you got it really helpful 😎
Be nice to each other.
Linden Texas if you like Piney Woods. Reminds me of Michigan.
I hope you're all better soon. As always Mr. BRIGGS, very informative and extremely hilarious. I'm always thoroughly entertained. You're almost as funny as the piraticians that govern Baltimore, only a lot more intelligent. 😉
Thank you. Feeling better all the time.
I stopped in Buffalo at Subway on my way back to Houston from Dallas!!!!
Countryside is wat I crave .
Thanks Briggs. I'm familiar with with a couple of these.
i i used to live in a small town name kyle tx population 20,000 25 years ago now in 2023 65,000 and still growing
Feel better, Briggs.
Sonora and Port Isabel sound amazing.
They are not
Gatesville TX. Jefferson, Texas. Nacogdoches?
I'm looking at Gatesville area but I don't want the prices to go up! Jefferson is a tourist town. With not much unless you just like a little artsy/historical place with antiques. :) Nacogdoches is not bad if you can handle the humidity.
Awesome video. Thanks for doing it.
Can we do a video thats like "so you live in a small town near Houston... Now the rising population is essentially causing a gentrification.
Where can you still rent under $1000 and comfortably commute to town?"
We can put like Huntsville and Porter on the list and then go around in a circle from there.
(Im really looking for the nw answer bc montgomery does NOT cut it. And ill have to give up on my hometown of Willis at some point with 45 guiding so many people to what WAS a very small town.)
I remember nothing but woods around Willis where I went to Girl Scout camp in the 1960s. Urban sprawl....
Come on Briggs, where is Liberty Hill!?
I googled Buffalo, TX. It was a picture of an SUV with snow on it? Yes, I double checked. Buffalo, TX! Not Buffalo, NY or Buffalo, MN. So confusing.
Sonora is a great place to get away for it all because you are away from it all.
These towns look nice Texas is a pretty good state.
barrel City in Henderson county in my taxes for an eighth of an acre with a two bedroom two bath single wide mobile home last year was $1,500 this year it jumped up to $3,500 so what's up with that
That's more than my almost 2000sf home in Tarrant Co.???
Would it make sense to discuss the cellular situation; reception quality, how many bars, etc.?
Yeah, nah, Can't say I agree with this. Yeah, crime rate is important, but what about amenities? Sitting at home all day on the internet isn't what retiree's do.
how about shopping? like food, hardware, the things most need. not the fancy way the (*) over price specialty places. and yes weather.
Warm hugs, Jim🥰
Thanks Judy
I would recommend the panhandle area within a short drive from Amarillo or Lubbock.
TX property and sales taxes are getting crazy high..... all your savings will just go to it even this state has no income tax
There are exemptions you can qualify for that lower them. I have two myself.
Weimar, TX. Right in the middle of the Golden Triangle. 90 miles to the Big Three.
Briggs hope you are getting better every day.
Welcome to Louisvillle Kentucky
How are ya
even though im from houston and rockport slash corpus and formally from oak brook chicago thanks to vegas nevada the western us is cool in my book despite small popular cities and towns in the east like miami orlando lake charles and gulf shores alabama other than san diego vegas and phoenix and reno grand junction flagstaff jackpot nevada marfa alpine odessa san angelo and fort stockton are okay for small towns dodge city is okay scottsbluff is okay rapid city is okay medora and bismarck are okay great falls is okay rock springs wyoming ely nevada el paso and honolulu and anchorage is okay so yeah i love the west because of good weather despite some cool stuff in the east like orlando atlantic city lake charles. miami and orlando but if choose vegas over tampa vegas definitely
We moved to Fairfield from Seattle... LOVE IT! Better than Buffalo IMHO, lower crime rate with better prices on homes :)
Hopefully you are feeling better by the time you are reading this. Those people that like to chew your butt out for whatever reason need to learn to scroll on. Just tell them to kiss your butt and block them. I was watching a video yesterday where you clearly explained something towards the beginning and then someone was chewing you out because they didn't listen. Apparently they should learn to listen and some manners.(they definitely didn't hear the end were you say be nice to one another) Never ceases to amaze me how stupid, rude, and entitled our country has become.
HCTC stands for Hill Country Telephone Company based out of Kerrville, TX.
Why do you add clips of mountains & desert in this video around the coastal cities? Those clips are nowhere near the towns you were referring to when the mountains clip popped up. Lol😊
i paid $45,000 for a 1400sqft 3br house on 10 acres in Virginia. no mortgage you should research lee county va.
10 years ago?
@@OceanAce 18 months ago
I lived in Austin Texas and never heard of Buffalo TX!
I'm curious if you checked out Canadian Texas all the way up in the Panhandle? Probably my favorite town in the Panhandle.
I think Canadian would be a good place to research. I drive through there often and love the landscape, the remoteness and weather. You get four seasons, I bet.
The#1 reason I wouldn't consider Texas is high property taxs.
That depends on the area that you chose to live in.
No income tax though
Well, you have a valid point, but remember that there is no state Income Tax in Texas, and you can qualify for various exemptions that can lower your taxes. Pay attention to school zones. I moved to another part of the same town and my taxes went up by quite a bit simply because I changed school districts.
If you're wanting to move to Texas move to the Panhandle. Many of beautiful places to move and real estate is affordable! Don't move anywhere other than the Panhandle it's no good.
Lol
Get well soon
Just FYI, we don’t have mountains east if I35
My favorite rural town in Texas: Terlingua.
Don’t listen to that guy. If you really planning to relocate, take some vacation time, visit the place several times in different seasons, talk to locals, start gathering information from different sources. According to this guy, my place would be a Paradise, low crime rate, well, that is because police doesn’t arrest anyone for non violent crimes and misdemeanors, and doing crapy paperwork, missing case files, etc. You will pay arm and leg for great medical services and good speed internet… And you better see in person houses that are cheap in our area. One of them, as example, very beautiful, standing just few feet from a freeway and few yards from line of high voltage. You will never see these on realtors pictures…
Sending lots of prayers
Gotta love those Texas ‘TOWS’
It's Ganado, TX.
Covid AGAIN???? Geeezzzzz dude take it easy and get well. again
It is a nice place but do not speed. They do not play about that.