Housing costs in WA can't hold a candle to Texas. The median home price in King County (where Seattle is located, for those who are unaware) is $415,000. Median home price in Dallas County is just a tad under $200,000. To get that in King County, you have to be all the way down in Federal Way or Auburn, both of which are so far out you'll need a car (so you get to sit on IH-5 for days) and you might as well not even try to have a social life in Seattle.
If you want a house in or that has access to the trendy area of Seattle, be prepared to cough up anywhere from $300,000 to $600,000 (median is $619k but I assume some folks will buy a smaller house or one that needs a bunch of work to get the price down).
415k is median...federal way and auburn are still below that. You can do better than ok with $400k in Seattle if you are willing to go condo.
Texas has bad schools, high Crome, dumpster divers everywhere. Washington state is a first world country in comparison. Even some boondocks place like Spokane where houses still go for $150k compares well to Texas (though the tech jobs are all in Seattle).
My point was that "better than OK with $400k" will get you a mansion in Dallas' northern suburbs or a very nice rambler with a pool inside Dallas itself, not a condo with an $800/mo maintenance fee. I'm not bagging on condos, either, but not everyone wants to live in one, plus the better ones in Seattle are getting picky about who can buy. It floored me to see an ad for a condo saying "no dogs." (Who bans dogs in Seattle? That has to be a recipe for disaster.)
You're 100% right that you can find cheaper housing in Auburn, Federal Way (mind the gunshots), Everett, or even Spokane. The problem is that living in none of those places gets you the walkable, diverse lifestyle of being in Seattle.
Also, thanks for painting all Texas schools with such a broad brush. I graduated from a north Texas (public, non-charter) high school that is well-ranked, in addition to graduating from a state college for my CSCI degree. My siblings came after me through the same school, one as recently as 5 years ago, and none of us are drooling founts of stupidity who can barely sign our own names. It's almost as though different areas have different levels of achievement in their schools.
$800/month in maintenance fees? Are you joking or exaggerating, or are you trying to justify your McMansion preference with hyperbole?
My experience of Texas was all in Austin, maybe that is a lower end city compared to Dallas? Not sure, but I was amazed by the poverty versus the worst places I know of in Washington state (where I'm native).
$554/mo in HOA and they're currently running a $210/mo "special assessment" for some recent upgrades. Almost everything on Capitol Hill is in the same boat. A condo in Issaquah had $325/mo for the HOA and another $300/mo to put in a new pool. I'm not sure why condos in Puget Sound love their special assessments but they sure do.
HOAs in north Texas that aren't considered "luxury" wouldn't dream of asking for more than a few hundred bucks a year. $254k gets you a newly-renovated 4bed/2bath half a block from the Capitol Hill-like Bishop Arts district in Dallas, a straight shot into downtown, transit, and no HOA: http://www.redfin.com/TX/Dallas/720-Elsbeth-St-75208/home/30...
We're the inverse: I'm a native of Texas and moved to Washington State. Seattle is awesome but it's very, very expensive compared to where I came from. Seattle has a lot to offer that Dallas doesn't, like weather that isn't incredibly unbearable and politicians that aren't incredibly unthinking, and scenery that isn't incredibly uninteresting. Trying to compare the two on price? Not in the same ballpark.
(The worst place I know of in King County is Federal Way and Austin was worse than that? Damn, the place has gone downhill a LOT since I was there.)
Texas has simultaneously some of the best and worst schools everywhere, like most states. I spent two years in a CA high school and two years in a TX high school and the difference was worlds apart—the CA school was a joke. Falling apart, horrid teachers paid below the poverty line, huge drug and violence issues. All AP classes have been cut.
The Texas school, conversely, was a palace of education. Better in every way. Highly-paid teachers, actual funding for extracurriculars, buildings that weren't condemned. Four years of computer science classes.
Are there bad schools in Texas? Absolutely. But the fact is (unfair as it may be) that in the areas a software developer is likely to live, the schools are fantastic.
If you want a house in or that has access to the trendy area of Seattle, be prepared to cough up anywhere from $300,000 to $600,000 (median is $619k but I assume some folks will buy a smaller house or one that needs a bunch of work to get the price down).