Conservative couple might move to Texas. Wife is retiring, I make sure hospitals are clean. Prefer a country setting but want a decent airport within an hour. We love the outdoors...shooting, hiking, kayaking, gardening, etc... What area should we look into?

I'll take first stab at it.

I've always liked the area along Highway 71, from Columbus (on I-10) to the Bastrop area.

The area around La Grange has some nice rolling hills, the towns are pretty small, and with the Austin airport on the south side of town on 71 too, you could make it there in about an hour or so.

The Colorado river runs through that area, so kayaking on it, plus two state parks along 71 for hiking and camping.

So the towns would be Columbus, La Grange, Smithville, Bastrop, and other smaller ones around those.

We welcome all non-leftists into this state.  It'll be a welcome change from CT.  We'll have Constructional Carry in month and a half, plus no laws about modern autoloaders, magazines, state NFA rules, etc.  

Good luck.

Retired people who need to be near a hospital seem to like Salado.

Pretty much anything in the hill country

Hospitals are not exactly hard to find, neither are airports.  Can you narrow your preferences down a little?

look at the Piney woods of east Texas, Tyler has good hospital and even has a decent airport, and you would love kayaking Caddo Lake

San Antonio in Helotes or Canyon Lake area.

What kind of weather do you want in the Winter?
Some places in Texas have ice problems every winter, others rarely have it.
How about in the Summer?  
While Texas is damn hot in Summer, if you have some altitude it cools off at night.

Too many variables OP. Help us out a little.  

Here, I’ll help.  Abilene - gateway to ‘west’ Texas high plains, but variety in every direction.  Hills to our south and southeast. Flat to the north and west.  Not much as far as ‘trees’.

 2 hospitals on opposite sides of town (same provider though) 3 universities, and an airport that makes daily flights to DFW and Houston I believe.  Town is a city of 120k that swells to 175k during holiday and work days.

 Feels like a small town.  Nice people.  Things tend to move a little slower despite being a ‘city’.

I hear Oklahoma is nice.

The following counties, not in any particular order, are close to airports, large medical centers, and a lot of outdoor, and tourist attractions.

Kerr
Kimble
Gillespie
Bexar----Not so conservative at the moment. (ETA)
Comal
Hays
Fayette
Gonzales  
Guadalupe
Austin
Colorado
Brazos
Montgomery

Bosque County

Abilene or San Angelo

Tyler is a huge medical hub. Almost as many hospitals as churches.

OP, you know everybody is different. I don't personally know you or your preferences.  But just remember,  "Diversity is what made this country great". If you are in agreeance with that notion, then you will have a lot more choices open to you. But if on the other hand, you believe that some places may have a little more culture then what you might care for, then you might just need to concern yourself with more then just about living around hospitals and airports. It's a touchy topic, and one must be very careful how he approaches it in public forums. Let me put it this way; I personally would not want to move to an area that has too much of one ethnic culture, because then I may have trouble finding outdoor cafes that serve gyros. You see, I love gyros, but they don't serve them at the dining counter at Walmart in Houston. So then, Google is your friend! You may want to check any town or city before taking anybody's advice before spending a lot of time going there to check it if it's going to be all wrong for finding gyros. For example, go to Wikipedia and look up the topic of  "Demographics" in Tyler Tx, and then compare it with "Demographics" in Boerne, Tx. Compare the numbers and see if you think you may prefer one town over the other as showing stats better suited to meet your gyro cafe dining needs, etc.  BTW, I've been to both towns. Hard pass on Tyler, TX thank you. Not enough Greeks there to make gyros. But l liked Boerne and wife loved it. (though, still no gyros.)

You're basing where you live on gyro availability?

Man I want your life.

No kidding.  I mean, crap, we have at least one guy here that makes outstanding gyros.

If that is the case, I would learn to make my own and move wherever the fuck I wanted.

My wife and I had talked about moving out to some place like Giddings to get away from the stupid liberal politics and high cost of the Austin area...  We keep hearing how much our house has gone up if we sold we'd have a lot of money to buy somewhere else...

Welll...  Not so much.  Houses that are smaller and older in Giddings are selling for more than what I could probably get for my house in Austin.  So I looked other similar towns.  Same story.  When did literally everywhere within 2 hours of civilization get unaffordable?

Attached File

The secret is the tzetki sauce (however u spell it)

Let me know if I can be of assistance. I'm a Realtor in Rockwall and help clients from DFW to Tyler, but I can also refer you to an agent anywhere else you may want to look. 2A Realty Group

LOL..... you guys. I went right over your heads. FYI; I've never actually bought or tasted a gyro in my life, and neither can I remember the last time that I ever dined at a sidewalk cafe.

I don't want to move to New Orleans, Chicago, Newark, or Dallas because I checked Demographic stats on Google and concluded that I wouldn't find gyros there?? ...lol Yea, right.

Brazoria county is where I live. Houston has the largest medical center in the world with many hospitals throughout the several county area.

Ill shoot business your way if you can find me a duplex-fourplex that cashflows and meets the 1% rule. Not in a war zone.

There are still some out there, but they're a lot harder to find now than they were a year ago. Do you have a preferred area? Are you open to rehab? If so what kind of rehab- just cosmetic, foundation, etc? Shoot me an email when you get a chance so that I can narrow down what you're looking for.

Email sent

San Marcos, Seguin, New Braunfels. Not necessarily in that order.

Any updates from the OP?   I think we have given some good info?

Which counties have low property taxes (or at least lower than Travis!) and lower home/land prices?  I know many of those counties mentioned are not affordable for poor working folk like myself.