Your state income tax bill stays at zero — both Florida and Texas charge zero state income tax. So the major FL tax benefit carries directly to Texas. The differential is property tax: Texas effective property tax rates run high (statewide average ~1.6%; Travis County / Austin slightly higher with school-district add-ons; Harris County / Houston runs comparable) vs Florida's ~0.9% with the homestead exemption and Save Our Homes 3% annual cap. For a USD 500K home, that's roughly USD 3,500 more per year in property tax in Texas. Texas has no estate tax. Sales tax in Texas runs slightly higher than Florida (6.25% state + local up to 2%).

Houston is the energy-capital pick — Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Halliburton, Schlumberger HQs; Texas Medical Center; Port of Houston; NASA Johnson Space Center. Best for energy, healthcare, port-logistics, aerospace careers. Austin is the tech-and-lifestyle pick — Apple, Tesla, Oracle, Google, Meta; UT Austin; Texas state capital; Hill Country outdoor lifestyle. Best for tech, government, lower-humidity climate. Dallas-Fort Worth is the corporate-HQ pick — AT&T, ExxonMobil, American Airlines, McKesson, Texas Instruments, Southwest, Comerica, Charles Schwab; the deepest banking-corridor overlap with Jacksonville. San Antonio is the military-and-South-Texas-culture pick — Lackland AFB, Fort Sam Houston, USAA HQ; lower cost of living than the big three.

Houston housing runs lower than Northeast Florida in many submarkets — a Ponte Vedra Beach budget buys substantially more square footage in Memorial, Katy, or The Woodlands. DFW housing also runs meaningfully cheaper than Northeast Florida — a PVB budget buys a 4,500 sq-ft single-family with pool in Frisco, Plano, or Coppell vs a 3,500 sq-ft in PVB. San Antonio is the cheapest of the big four. Austin is the exception — housing has appreciated sharply post-2020 and runs higher than Jacksonville for comparable home quality (a PVB budget buys 2,500 sq-ft without pool in Westlake or Tarrytown).

Texas runs hotter and drier than Florida west of the I-35 line. Houston is the most humid Texas metro (comparable to Jacksonville in summer humidity but with longer summer season — late April through early October). Austin, DFW, and San Antonio run with mid-50s to high-50s dew points in summer vs Jacksonville's mid-70s — same temperature feels substantially less oppressive. Winter is colder than Jacksonville in DFW (occasional ice events, Winter Storm Uri 2021) and milder in Houston / San Antonio / Austin. Hurricane risk is Gulf-side in Houston (Harvey 2017, Beryl 2024); no hurricane risk in Austin / DFW / San Antonio. North Texas sits in Tornado Alley with severe-thunderstorm season March–June.

November through early April is the best move window for the Jacksonville-end loadout. You avoid Atlantic hurricane season on the loadout side. Houston shares Gulf hurricane season — coordinate timing to avoid both Atlantic and Gulf named-storm forecasts for the August–October window. Austin, DFW, and San Antonio have no hurricane risk but Texas summer heat (100+ degree days July–August in Austin and DFW) makes April–October moves operationally hot — most carriers prefer March, April, October, November windows.

Houston carries materially higher hurricane-and-flood insurance costs than Jacksonville after Hurricane Harvey (2017) and Hurricane Beryl (2024) — flood-zone considerations for Houston housing are meaningful. Austin, DFW, and San Antonio carry no hurricane risk but Tornado Alley severe-storm coverage is a real line item. Texas property insurance broadly runs comparable to Florida in headline rate but with different risk allocation (hail and wind from severe thunderstorms / tornado risk vs Florida hurricane / wind).

Houston-bound: Memorial Villages, The Heights, Katy, Cinco Ranch, The Woodlands, Sugar Land. Austin-bound: Westlake, Tarrytown, Cedar Park, Leander, Lakeway, Bee Cave. DFW-bound: Highland Park, University Park, Plano, Frisco, Southlake, Coppell, McKinney, Prosper. San Antonio-bound: Alamo Heights, Stone Oak, Boerne, New Braunfels. Each metro has direct Northeast Florida suburb analogs — Ponte Vedra Beach maps to Memorial (Houston), Westlake (Austin), Highland Park (DFW), Alamo Heights (San Antonio); Nocatee maps to Katy or Cinco Ranch (Houston), Cedar Park (Austin), Frisco or Prosper (DFW), Stone Oak (San Antonio).