I agree fully with the Texas ranking with the giant caveats that it has been 30 years since I lived there, and it depends on where in Texas you're talking about. I have visited 1-5 times a year since moving away. Nowadays I only visit once per year.

I lived there 12 years and was extremely happy when I got the chance to move away.

South East Texas is a humid, racist swamp (IMHO). There are some wonderful people there, and a lot of really horrible people.

I'm in oil and gas and yes, the oil and gas business in Texas is great. I could make more money being self-employed there, but then...I'd have to live there. Also, there would be more competition since Houston is the center of the US oil and gas world.

Everything is not about money if you have enough to live decently on. Having a lot of money in Houston is also relative. If you have a nice car or motorcycle, they might well get stolen. You can't drive a cabrio during the day 3/4 of the year, because the outside temperature is equal to the surface of the sun, and so humid that you will sweat through a shirt in 0.24 seconds without A/C.

If you only visit SE Texas from November through February, it is nice. As long as you don't mind the racism, poverty, traffic, and crime. The blue bonnets on the way to Austin are beautiful when they are in bloom, and back in the day, you could stop off and visit “that shack outside La Grange. You know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout.”

Apropos and to be fair: The music in SE Texas is fucking awesome. Rock in/around Houston, blues in Beaumont, blues/rock around Austin.