For background, I grew up on a somewhat rural property east of Houston. I always enjoyed the fact that we were close to Houston (less than 45 minutes) but could still come back to our acreage and feel somewhat isolated from the city life. Problem is, there just isn't much land left like that out here anymore and what is out here is $3000+/acre and that's on the very low side.

I visited the panhandle for several days a couple of years ago on my way to Colorado and fell in love with it.

Would love to get some acreage out there (50+) and settle down. I've been working in the banking industry for several years now and have noticed several job openings in the Amarillo area for which I am qualified.

Keep in mind that this is just a consideration at this point as my wife won't be leaving her position for at least a year. She is equally excited about getting out to West Texas as she spent considerable time with extended family in Garden City when she was younger and misses the area.

Thoughts on a good place to settle down? Since I know nothing about farming, I would probably stick to a career in the banking/finance industry. (Although I'd love to get into farming, but my lack of knowledge scares the crap outta me.) I'd imagine this would mean I would need to be relatively close to a more urban area, but I really want to live on some land that isn't divided into tiny plots.

Help anyone?

Unless you won last night's $150M lottery, you are on the right track by remaining in banking rather than farming/ranching. The capital requirements for equipment added to the near impossibility of finding land to lease....

...well, hobby farming on a small acreage makes the most sense.


Folks generally either love the Panhandle or hate it. Sounds like you and your wife are in the former category. As long as you really investigate the move, and go in with your eyes open, I think you will be happy.

My observations:

The weather can be brutal. Colder temps, higher snowfall, higher winds than most of Texas. We can have highs >100 through a lot of July and August. It's a semi-arid area, less than 18 inches of rain per year. Hailstorms and tornadoes are common in the spring.

On the other hand, my wife (who attended high school in Houston) loves the fact that we actually have seasons. Many of us like the low humidity. The elevation and low humidity mean that summer nights are wonderfully cool, and stars are numerous.

The flat, treeless plains are boring and depressing to some. The rest of us find a kind of rare beauty in it and love the wide open skies. Sunsets and sunrises are beyond belief.

You may not like being so far from the major metropolitan areas. But you will like being no more than 20 minutes from one place to another in Amarillo, and rush hour being a bunch of cars going 70 down I-40, instead of 2 or 3.

While there is crime and criminals, in general the area is safe, the schools are good, and the people very friendly.

If you stay in banking, your choices of a hometown are pretty much unlimited. Obviously Amarillo is a big financial center, and you could live in Amarillo, Canyon, Claude, Panhandle, Dumas, Bushland, etc.

I really like Canyon, but not everyone does. It has a little bit of rolling terrain, the schools are very good, and the variety of people is interesting. You go to the local cafe and see PhDs, bankers, real cowboys, blue collar folks, international students from WT and nuclear scientists from Pantex.

It's still a small town, but Amarillo is a short drive away when you need big city things.

Bushland is growing by leaps and bounds, and just opened their first high school.

Clarendon is further from Amarillo, but it has a junior college and a good school, though it is very small (class A). There, you're more into ranching country than farming.

Land prices are going to be high within a 5-10 mile radius of Canyon or Amarillo. Recreational land prices in the far eastern Panhandle (Wellington, etc.) are starting to rise because of the pressure of Dallas area folks looking for hunting leases, etc.

You'll hate being 8 hours away from Baylor, but you might like being 4 hours away from Red River.


It all comes down to personal choice. I do love this area, and frankly I'm glad a lot of other folks have yet to discover it.

I meant to add, the local bank (Happy State Bank) is a rarity, a bank still owned locally rather than by a mega-corporation. However, they are growing by leaps and bounds. Don't know if this is the kind of thing you are into, but they just bought a trust operation in Arizona, and have received a grant from the Canyon Economic Development folks to move it into Canyon. I think they are bringing some folks from Arizona, but they are looking to hire a lot of others.

http://amarillo.com/stories/011907/new_6594097.shtml

The above link is the Amarillo newspaper. You have to register, but they don't spam you. And if you are thinking about moving here, reading the local paper is a great way to get a feel for the community.

Thanks a lot Canyon.

I'm just tired of the clutter and I'm only in my mid-20s. When I was growing up, we could get away from it all when we went home for the day. We worked and went to school in urban areas, but it was nice to retreat to a little slice of heaven that was our own.

Now, where I used to live is all suburb developments. Land out here just costs too damn much (as I said before, $3-15k/acre, depending on location) to buy anything larger than a couple of acres and even most of those plots are in subdivisions.

East Texas is nice, but the wooded areas don't do near as much for me personally as the plains.

Like you said, some people consider West Texas bare and unimaginative. I couldn't disagree more. There is something magical about being able to see for miles and miles. It just seems "real" to me, if that makes sense. I'm sure you can relate.

Dealing with the congestion, traffic, and concrete of the Houston area (even out in the suburbs) wears on the soul and thankfully, my wife agrees.

I'm intriguied by the fact that y'all actually have seasons- here, it's always humid and nasty, except for a couple of rare occasions in the early spring/late fall.

Don't get me wrong, there are some really nice areas out here and I can see how some people would love to settle down in this area. Having grown up on land though, I can't imagine spending the rest of my life living on a quarter acre-1 acre plot surrounded by other homes. It's just not natural.

From what you make it sound like, prices are going up quite a bit out there. Can you still buy tracts of 50+ non-farmland acres for around $1-2k/acre? Or would I have to go out to the boonies to find something like that?

How much does acreage go for around Amarillo, Canyon, etc?



[This message has been edited by BaylorGuy314 (edited 2/21/2007 10:43a).]

My dad just bought 5 acres just southwest of canyon about 3 miles out for 7k. He got a great deal and most is more expensive than that but there is still much more land cheaper than the houston area. Another plus is that living in amarillo you are only 4-5 hours from anything. Skiing in new mexico is a easy weekend trip as is shopping id DFW. Palo Duro canyon is 30 minutes away and lake meredith is 45 away. I grew up there and can't think of a place that I would rather live.

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I'm intrigued by the fact that y'all actually have seasons- here, it's always humid and nasty, except for a couple of rare occasions in the early spring/late fall.

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My lawnmower has been gathering dust in the back of the garage for four months now. What about yours?

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How much does acreage go for around Amarillo, Canyon, etc?

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Not an easy question to answer. Demand for land is going up. The economy around Amarillo is very good and unemployment is low.

I'd say it would be possible to find land for what you want to pay, but the question is where?

In general, land is off the charts high close to town and on the pavement. The aquifer can be highly variable, and that effects things. Any land that is on the breaks, or near Palo Duro Canyon, in other words, scenic, is going to be higher.

There is an ad in the Amarillo paper today (print, not online) for 40 acres, a 1500s.f. house and barn near Clarendon for $149,000.

On the other hand, we have friends who had 200 acres near Canyon with a house, a guest house and a rent house, all on Tierra Blanca creek. They were asking a cool million for it.

We own a farm 3 miles south of the $1M place, off pavement, flat land (no creek), just a dryland farm. We bought it 13 years ago for $265 an acre. Our place is also about 10 road miles from town, theirs is about 3.

I'd say today, if you were willing to go far enough out in the country, you could find land for $500 to $1000 per acre. But if you get very close to town, and look at scenic areas on the edge of the canyon, you're right back at $5,000 an acre.

I've often wondered how I would go about picking a place to live if I were in your shoes. I think I might get a travel trailer. I'd drag it up to the Panhandle and park it. Then I'd spend every free weekend and holiday up here, in every possible season. I'd stay at every town I was interested in, shop at their stores, eat in their cafes, attend their churches and high school games, read their papers, watch their TV news.

I don't think it would take long to pick up the "vibe" of the local communities. I'd bet it wouldn't take long to find a place that really appeals.

EDIT: I also think I'd wait on picking a permanent home. Say you and the spouse got jobs in Amarillo. I'd seriously consider renting an apartment for a year or so, and using the time to find your home town. Of course, if you have kids in school, that changes things.



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 2/21/2007 2:02p).]

Move to Amarillo. Get to know some friends. Get to know some banking connections. Then start looking for land out of town. Like Canyon said, the land prices are so variable (depending on water, terrain, facilities, distance from town, etc.) that it is impossible to say. You may end up liking Amarillo and just want a weekend place in Red River or Angel Fire?? Still, the Panhandle is a great place to live and work.

It is not the oil, or the land and cattle, or any other industry that is the wealth of the Panhandle. It is the people.

You will find the greatest folks in the world up there.

I agree with the posts. CanyonAg hits the high points exactly.

And I also agree: get to Amarillo, get a job, then start looking for some land somewhere. Decide where you may want to live. Whether it is in Clarendon, or somewhere closer to Amarillo.

I mention Clarendon because that is where I grew up. There were alot of local people that drove to Amarillo to work 20-30 years ago when I was there. Now many people are moving from Amarillo out there and driving back and forth to work. And I am sure there are other towns in the area that are the same way.

Clarendon is about an hour away.

Just get out there, then decide what you want to do after you experience it all for awhile.

But be forewarned. The North part can be brutally cold in the winter and the East part brutally hot in the summer.

But almost everywhere, the Summer nights are wonderfully cool and studded with beautiful stars.

Do you still have relatives in Clarendon? My brother in law is teaching high school math there now.

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East Texas is nice, but the wooded areas don't do near as much for me personally as the plains.

Like you said, some people consider West Texas bare and unimaginative. I couldn't disagree more. There is something magical about being able to see for miles and miles. It just seems "real" to me, if that makes sense. I'm sure you can relate.

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You got that right.

We don't have all them trees and mountains cluttering up the scenery around here.

As Lewis Grizzard was told on a visit to Amarillo: "We've got more cows and no milk, more rivers and no water, more scenery and less to see than anywhere on earth."

Just please don't let Canyon become the next Flower Mound, Katy, or San Marcos ...

Yeah, I have many relatives left in Clarendon. Most all of them are about a mile South of town, and six feet under though.

My father's family got there in 1880, my mother's in 1885. So I have alot of extended family still there.

It is a beautiful place. But the people are a little clickish. (or very clickish)

There are certainly friendlier places in the Panhandle. No disrespect to my hometown, but it is the truth.

My B-I-L started teaching there 2-3 years ago after a midlife career change. He commutes from Canyon. The Clarendon folks have treated him well, and he feels accepted. I'm sure there are cliques just like everywhere, but he's happy.

Killer-K has it right. I grew up in Clarendon, too. It's a very tight town and a lot of times they don't make room for new people. On the other hand, there are some excellent teachers in the school system and if you want to be part of the community, they'll let you in - if begrudgingly.

There are lots of great towns within driving distance of Amarillo where the cost of living is still ridiculously low. Claude is, I think, fixing to get hit with a little "boom". There's lots of building in town and some companies buying up houses there for rental property.

Take your time. Live up there before you buy. Until you have seen it the whole year round, what we're telling you seems a little hard to believe. I can promise you this, though: those star-filled nights will make you forget the winds and the heat and the cold.