We left California for Texas to flee sky-high costs and COVID restrictions. We love the slower tempo of Southern life and can by no means return.

• Jennifer and Chuck Balek moved their household of seven from California to Texas in April 2021. 
• The couple mentioned California’s excessive costs and strict COVID response despatched them fleeing.
• The couple loves how pleasant Texans are and mentioned they might by no means return to California.

This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with couple Jennifer Balek, 38, and Chuck Balek, 43, about their expertise transferring their household from Camarillo, California, to Rockwall, Texas, in April 2021. The next has been edited for size and readability.

Jennifer: I used to be born and raised in Camarillo, California. I lived there my entire life, went by way of college on the market and did not stay anyplace else till we moved.

Chuck: I used to be born in Whittier, California. After I was 21, I moved as much as Ventura County the place I planted roots.

We have been collectively occurring 10 years now. We had each gone by way of earlier marriages and after we received collectively we established our blended household, which we discuss with jokingly because the Balek Bunch.

Jennifer: Image the Brady Bunch, and that is us, just a bit crazier.

Chuck: Our children are our biggest pleasure, regardless that they’re chaos.

Jennifer: Now we have six complete. Our youngest is about to be 11 and our oldest is 24. 

We lived in a very nice space in California. It was a pleasant, middle-class city. It was actually small after I was rising up. However it was very household oriented, very conservative. The neighborhood was actually well-kept. Camarillo was 10 minutes to the seashore, which was superior. 

However the costs simply saved going up. 

Chuck: We have been paying $4,000 a month in hire for 3,200 ft. And due to that, we simply might by no means save sufficient to purchase a house.

Jennifer: We by no means actually tried to purchase in California as a result of the down fee to buy a house the scale we would want for our massive household is over 100 thousand {dollars}. How do you save that?

$4,000 a month on hire and $6 a gallon for fuel and all these different bills simply made it feasibly unattainable.

There was a time after we have been spending not less than a thousand {dollars} a month on fuel.  

Chuck: The California Dream — that was our mother and father’ dream, it was our grandparents’ dream. However it wasn’t attainable for us making an attempt to do it on our personal. We do not come from households with cash that might assist us in that facet. 

California’s COVID response was our final straw

Chuck: We had at all times loosely mentioned leaving, however COVID was positively what pushed us over the sting. Our children have been doing okay till COVID. 

We noticed our youngsters struggling day by day doing the net factor.

Jennifer: I used to be working full-time from residence and making an attempt to assist 5 children with their Zoom faculties. It was insane. 

It was killing us. With the colleges, they have been going again part-time, however your child might solely go in two days per week. And if somebody received COVID at school, they shut the entire college down. It was one thing new day by day.

And the children weren’t studying something. They have been so behind the ball. It was simply brutal. 

Chuck: It was in December of 2020 that we sat down and mentioned we have to truly think about transferring.

Jennifer: By January 2021, we have been like we will not do that anymore. 

We have been fairly set on getting out of there. We won’t afford this. The college factor is ridiculous. I used to be so bored with the restrictions in our county. We have been simply so bored with all of it. 

Chuck: We booked our flights for the primary week of February to come back discover a home in Texas. 

We seemed all all through Texas to search out the best place to settle

Jennifer: We had checked out different states. We have been positively in search of someplace conservative. We needed to maneuver to a Republican state and one the place we had probably the most freedoms potential. 

We had a whole lot of buddies that had already moved out right here to Texas, individuals from our church, household, buddies. They have been loving it. 

However Texas is a huge state. 

I needed a household space. I did not need a metropolis. I did not need it to be a university city or a small city with a bunch of older individuals. I needed a younger group with actually good faculties. Each time we checked out a home, I checked the varsity scores. 

Rockwall wasn’t even on our radar. We did not know what it was. We hadn’t heard something about it. 

Chuck: Rockwall is the smallest county in all of Texas.

Jennifer: I simply occurred throughout a list of this home that was actually cute. And the colleges are actually good on this metropolis.

So we will test it out and we changed into our particular neighborhood and all people’s entrance door was embellished for Valentine’s Day as a result of we got here in February. I used to be like oh my gosh I like this. Everyone decorates for holidays. These are my individuals. 

And there’s rolling terrain. It is so fairly. Everybody’s yards are properly saved. This appears like such a pleasant neighborhood. 

We simply fell in love with North Texas greater than anyplace else to start with. 

Chuck: It simply felt prefer it was meant to be.

Initially, we put in a suggestion of full asking worth. They got here again and mentioned they’d three different gives. Jennifer felt very inclined to incorporate somewhat love letter, a photograph of our household saying we’re only a household in search of a house to boost our youngsters.

That labored. They accepted our provide regardless that there have been gives that have been above us. We paid $386,000. 

Our household shortly fell in love with Texas

Chuck: We took the method of being modern-day pioneers. We will depart all the things and everybody we have recognized and we will go discover a higher life for our youngsters and ourselves.

Jennifer: We had an enormous help community in Camarillo. My entire household was there. I lived there my entire life. We had an enormous church household. The youngsters had been in the identical faculties, so all of them had their buddies. 

Taking them from that and us from all of that, that was my concern transferring out right here: I needed to have the ability to discover that once more. 

We moved out right here in April 2021. 

Chuck: I feel we landed precisely the place we have been speculated to. Everyone adjusted very well. The youngsters have all thrived. 

Jennifer: The colleges are actually, actually good right here. 

Chuck: They’ve packages that permit children to make use of their fingers and their mind, not simply sit behind a display screen. 

The largest worth distinction we have seen since transferring out right here was fuel. On the time we moved, fuel was like $2 lower than in California. We have been paying $2.86 after we first received right here and in California, it was $5.

We’re doing very properly now. The price of dwelling might be a great 15 to twenty% decrease than in Southern California. 

And lo and behold, now we’ve my mom and father-in-law dwelling three minutes away from us. And my brother and sister-in-law and our three nephews reside one avenue away from my in-laws. And my sister-in-law’s mother and father are leaving Camarillo now too.

Jennifer: We have positively had fairly a number of individuals observe us out right here. 

Chuck: My greatest good friend says I have to be a spokesman for Texas as a result of all I do is promote individuals on transferring to Texas. I simply need individuals to know that this was the most effective resolution we might have ever made. 

There’s just one factor we miss about California

Jennifer: Everyone seems to be so good out right here. Southern hospitality is certainly current. Everybody may be very respectful. They maintain the door for you. They do not lower you off for a parking spot. It’s extremely community-based. 

It is a slower tempo right here. Everybody will cease and discuss to you. You go to the grocery retailer and also you strike up a dialog with actually anyone. 

Chuck: I spent many, a few years in visitors on the 405 Freeway in California. And it is simply not that manner out right here. It would not really feel like individuals get indignant as a result of we’re going sluggish. Individuals simply roll with it. 

Jennifer: It’s arduous to search out good Mexican meals out right here, although. 

Chuck: Every part is Tex-Mex. They drown all the things in queso. Do not get me fallacious — a few of it may be extraordinarily scrumptious, however whenever you’ve lived 41 years consuming Los Angeles Mexican meals, it isn’t the identical. 

Jennifer: In Southern California, you are actually spoiled with the variety of eating places.

Chuck: You may discover barbecue right here. However you are not going to search out a lot past that. 

However there isn’t any trying again. My boss requested me the opposite day if I might ever return to California, and I mentioned he might provide me a 4,000-square-foot home on the seashore and $200,000 in earnings and I nonetheless would not do it.