Or, you know, they just want to move to a smaller city. Houston's still a third as dense as LA, NY or Chicago so its not like politics are the only differences.
The difference is that Houston has more diverse and better job opportunities yet still has reasonably affordable housing.
There are tons of places with very cheap housing and no jobs. Nobody moves there except maybe a few teleworkers looking to optimize hard for surplus or people with other reasons to go there like family ties.
Personally I would never consider moving to Houston: it's humid-hot, air quality is poor in certain areas (lots of chemical and oil refineries there coupled with humid heat), and crime-ridden (again, in certain areas).
It’s probably a bit of both. Houston uses HOV toll lanes, so there are additional costs to commuting there. The distance that people commute in the Houston area can be insane, though, which is where I imagine the cost comparison comes in. 30-50 mile commutes aren’t uncommon in the Houston metro area.
Regarding Houston, it's among the fastest growing cities in the US. People are moving there in droves from the coasts. It's also not even remotely as cheap as a lot of people think.
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