 Hey guys, what's up, it's Kinsey, and welcome back to my channel. In today's video, I'm going to be filming a video, oh my gosh, I'm just gonna say video, on my experience living in Los Angeles, California, versus living in Texas, more specifically, Dallas, Texas. If you guys are new here, be sure to subscribe. I also want to mention that I have been filming my life for the past like seven years at this point, and so all of these moves are documented, apartment shopping is documented, all of that stuff, with the exception of touring the house that I now own. Pretty much all of that is documented. Do you guys look at that if you're interested in more specifically Los Angeles moving vlogs? I want to say I am definitely like Die Hard Texas. I love Texas so much with the passion, like I'm one of those annoying people, but I also do really love Los Angeles, and I see myself being in LA like so much for the rest of my life. It's like one of my favorite places. I have a whole life there. I have so many friends there. It's an incredible city. I loved living in LA. I'm not one of the people who doesn't like LA. With that being said, I definitely like Texas better. I prefer the actual city of Dallas over the city of LA with or without the people and all the other reasons as to why I like Texas more. So I am here to be sharing with you guys as many details and getting as specific as possible. I am giving you guys my rent prices. These do not bully me in my mortgage prices, neighborhoods that I've lived in, that I've loved, neighborhoods that I didn't love so much, things like that. I'm going to be answering all of those. I just want to give you a quick shout out. Thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring today's video. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people. Explore new skills, deepen existing passions, and get lost in creativity. I love Skillshare because I'm able to learn so much. I've taken classes on cooking. I've taken classes on finances. There's just so many things to learn on there. If you guys want, you guys can click the link down below. The first 1000 of you guys will get a free trial of the Skillshare premium membership. Okay guys, so let's talk about taxes. Let's talk about California. A little background. I lived in Texas from the time I was two years old to 17. Then I moved to LA from 17 to 22. Moved back here when I was 22, which was February of 2020. I originally had kept my house in California because I was still planning on renting that and then just buying this and splitting my time back and forth. I know this is repetitive. I'm just saying this for new people. But with COVID, I didn't renew my lease in LA because obviously I can't go back so now I'm just full-time in Dallas. I was growing up in Texas. I definitely took it for granted. I didn't realize that it's the greatest place to literally ever exist. It took me moving away, which I think is always good when you've grown up somewhere. I think it's great to move away and kind of do your own thing for a second. But it took me moving away to realize how much I actually love Texas. I wasn't really homesick by any means and I'm definitely very independent and I love living in LA. But with that being said, when I was 17, I thought I knew everything and I thought I would definitely never be back in Texas and blah, blah, blah. And then I had my awakening and realized that Texas isn't incredible. Started loving Texas. Still stayed in LA. I was doing, you know, was working out there in college, all that stuff. And then I just felt like, you know, for some reason I really feel like I need to be back in Dallas. That's a whole other story. So I ended up giving this house in February, moved back here in February, and then obviously ended up not renewing in LA, my lease in LA because of COVID. So I'm here and I am so freaking happy. It is literally like the best thing ever. I love Texas so much. I'm so happy here. I love the people. I love everything about it. So we're going to get into more specifics, but just giving you a little bit of a background. So rent. My first apartment in LA was a two bedroom, two bath, and we spent like, I want to say it was around 24 to $2,600. Then I moved to a one bedroom apartment on my own. The rent was $2,750. Okay? I know, everyone. I already know. Okay? Then I ended up moving to a house with roommates and it was a three bedroom house with really, it was like a four bedroom because there was another huge room that I used in my office. And that was only $2,900 and that was in Studio City. The first ones were in downtown LA. Then I moved to Studio City, which is technically the valley, which is essentially just like right outside of LA. It wasn't too far. I did everything at the time in West Hollywood and it was anywhere from like a 20 to 45 minute drive depending on traffic. I didn't mind the drive and I loved living in Studio City. It was my favorite neighborhood. If I ever got another place in LA, I would do, okay, I would probably actually do West Hollywood just because everything I do is in West Hollywood and for the convenience of it and not having a car there. But if I lived there full time, I'm Studio City through and through, it was the best experience. We'll get into the neighborhood soon. But it's cheaper in the valley. So my house, which was essentially could have been a four bedroom, two bath at that point, was $2,900, they ended up raising the rent to $33,000. So I ended up paying $3,300 divided between roommates. I personally paid like $1,275 because I had more space. Maybe I've paid more than that after. My mortgage for my townhouse here, which is a two bedroom, two bath, two and a half bath with a really large rooftop, a two car garage, multiple balconies is $2,100 guys. So to put that in perspective, I paid $2,750 for a one bedroom in Los Angeles. And for my mortgage here, I'm paying $2,210. So obviously that's incredible. And I also want to say I got a really, really good deal on my house. So we got very, very lucky. And I don't know rent prices because I've never rented in a city of Dallas. But obviously, like that is a really, really good deal. There are neighborhoods in Dallas, like Highland Park, University Park, Preston Hollow, where the house thing prices are actually very similar to what you would pay in neighborhoods in LA. But the difference is taxes are different here, cost of living overall is cheaper. But the houses, I will say it's definitely getting more expensive. I will say that. Hi guys. Me from the future. I wanted to clarify it. So obviously for the most part, things are a lot cheaper. I just got asked really specifically a lot about Highland Park, University and Preston Hollow. But there are so many other neighborhoods here. And even if you're just like 10 minutes outside of Dallas proper, it is way cheaper and you get a lot more for your money. Your money goes further. And even in those certain neighborhoods I listed, your money will go further. But the prices are definitely really up there. So that's why I was referring to those neighborhoods a lot in this video because that's what I was asked about the most. I don't really know why. But there are so many different neighborhoods around here that you can get a lot better deals. But I just think Dallas proper, obviously as any city is going to be more expensive. And then you can do just certain neighborhoods that are going to be cheaper. And then like even five, 10 minutes out, way cheaper. So just wanted to clarify because I feel like I was just kind of saying at the same price. It's not the same at all. It's not the same with my like propeller head. With my fan. Me again. Basically Texas, obviously you can get a lot more for your money here. The neighborhoods I was asked about more specifically are a little bit more expensive and definitely can get up there as far as certain prices. For some reason I'm only asked about the really expensive ones. So many different neighborhoods in Dallas that you can get a lot more for your money. Especially, especially if you're going to the suburbs of Dallas. But yeah. I'm talking about neighborhoods in LA and Dallas. I will give you my favorite neighborhoods in LA and then a few of my favorite ones in Dallas. In LA, Studio City, I already said that it's in the valley, meaning it's like over the hill. It is a little bit more of a drive to get into the city, but it really depends on what you're doing there. I did literally everything in West Hollywood when I lived in Studio City for the last like two, two and a half years, however long I lived there. And the drive kind of would get a little bit annoying, but it wasn't that bad. I just, obviously the traffic is so bad, so I would end up like staying in West Hollywood for the whole day because it wouldn't make sense to drive back to my house and come back, which it just kind of depends on your preference. You just kind of get used to it. That's life out there. Like you are used to paying that rent because that's just what it is. And then the driving, you just get used to. I didn't mind it that much. I would make my drives like productive and you know, like listen to podcasts and stuff. With that being said, I did have Coco there. So at that point, I would like have to hire dog sitters or walkers and things like that. Something that is really important to add is that doing like literally anything in LA is a whole ordeal. Like even going to the grocery store, it's pretty rare unless you're in the valley, then they have parking lots and it's like this hidden gem because parking lots in like LA just don't exist. But doing anything in LA is a whole ordeal because there's so much traffic. Just finding parking is an added stress. There's a lot of added stresses to everyday things and I find that you can do a lot less in the day because you spend so much time in your car, so much time looking for parking. Things like that. Like whereas in Dallas, I love that pretty much everything I do is within five to ten minutes of me, all the neighborhoods that I would go to with the exception of Bishop Arts is only 15 to 20 and it's really easy to get around. Parking is not bad at all. It's easy. In LA, everything is an ordeal and I just feel like there's this extra layer of anxiety. Literally just from driving and parking, but it adds so much to your day. Even the fact that you can't just like go home midday and leave. Like you have to stay in certain areas of town because your whole life basically revolves around traffic and how you're going to get somewhere and all of that because it's just not easy to just like get around there. I also love West Hollywood and West Hollywood is convenient because that's where my studio was, that's where my school was, that's where all of my meetings ended up being, it's where a lot of like the social life was, that's where my church was. So I ended up doing a lot of West Hollywood. If I were to now get a place in LA again and split my time, I would probably get a place in West Hollywood because I wouldn't plan on having a car there. But if I was going to live in LA full time, for sure, Studio City, it's way cozier, it's way homier, you get a lot more for your money. It feels like a neighborhood vibe, it's not too busy, but it's literally 20 minutes away. I hate Santa Monica, I've always hated Santa Monica. I don't like Venice either, I love downtown personally, I'm popular opinion. Archibald is cool, Brentwood, I love Brentwood, very expensive, love the Palisades. I mean if you're a multi-multi-millionaire. Really creative, like artsy, more like a dom type of person, so I really like is great, Echo Park, that sort of thing. In Dallas, if you're more creative, artsy, bishop arts, deep L.M., that's like great. Even maybe like design district kind of. People love Uptown here, I think Uptown's cool. Neighborhoods switched throughout the years, right? So like it used to be where Uptown was like the coolest place ever and that's where I really wanted to move originally when I was looking at places here. And my realtor like really steered me in another direction just because basically investment-wise what I was buying, what I really wanted. She's like, you actually don't want to live there. So I didn't move there, but Uptown's like really nice and really, really cool. Then you have like the parks, so Highland Park and University Park. And then you also have Preston Hollow, I kind of loop those all in together. Those are really, really nice, really expensive. Housing prices really definitely compared to LA. But obviously overall cost of living is cheaper. I personally love like lower Greenville, I think that's a really great area. It's a lot of young people, a lot of money to be made on property in lower Greenville, so that's also a good area. There's just so many places honestly in Dallas. And I will say if you were seeing those tweets where it's like, oh, this house in LA versus this house in Texas and the house in Texas is like a 10 bedroom house that's like $500,000, like that is deep in the suburbs. Dallas Proper is not as cheap, like those are not, those are always in the suburbs and they're not in Dallas Proper. So you're also paying for where you live and like convenience of where you live. A lot of the time like anything, younger people live in the city and then when they get a family and they want more for their money, they'll move out to the suburbs. I grew up in North Dallas, which makes a very big difference because North Dallas and South Dallas are two different worlds. My church is now South Dallas and now I get the stereotype of Texas and church and how everyone gets married young and has babies young and all of that because that was more of a South Dallas thing. In North Dallas, everyone went away for college. People get married later too. It's a little more career oriented, it's not a small town. North Dallas is nicer for sure. In South Dallas, it's like more cute quaint families. You get married young, you have kids young sort of thing. I feel like in South Dallas, it's more common to go to church. Obviously, Texas is like kind of a Bible belt, but most of my friends growing up in North Dallas like didn't go to church. I just didn't feel like it was as much of that as it would be in South Dallas. Cost of living, groceries, gas, restaurants, coffee, taxes, things like that. So obviously, taxes are cheaper in Texas. Number one, number two, gas is way cheaper here. I used to pay like anywhere from like $55 to $70 to fill up my tank on my like three series BMW, a very small car. And here I pay $25 to $30 to fill up my tank. We always joke, Texas literally like pays you to fill up because it is so cheap. As far as restaurants go, a lot of the restaurants and coffee shops that I go to are the exact same prices as LA. I don't find them that much cheaper, if anything. But with that being said, there are so many places in Dallas too that are a lot cheaper. So basically in LA, almost every single restaurant is like a standard price and it's all more expensive. And in Dallas, there are so many restaurants and there are some that compare to LA prices and there are some that are just cheaper. So it just depends on where you go. I just always go to places that are also in LA, I think just cuz that's what I'm used to and I'm annoying and I like trendy things and blah blah blah. But definitely cheaper here. Another thing about just kind of overall cost of living, I did find myself eating out and spending a lot more money in LA. Honestly, just due to the fact that I couldn't go home throughout the day. So that was a really big thing. And then socially, for the most part, I feel like you would just always go get food like that was like the kind of the thing that you would do. So I just felt like I spent a lot more money in LA, not even because I felt pressured to, but just because I didn't really have an option. Like I couldn't drive 45 minutes home to go get food, it just didn't make sense. I don't know, does any difference in groceries, I always shop at Trader Joe's. I don't even know if groceries like Trader Joe's are cheaper per state. And yeah, obviously taxes. So the cost of living overall is cheaper in Texas and you do get more for your money pretty much just like everywhere you go. Okay, social scene, I kind of touched on this a little bit. South Dallas is more if you get married young. North Dallas is more of not as much that thing. LA is very career oriented. People are typically kind of there for themselves. The dating scene in LA is like really, really, really hard. I dated in LA, but it was mainly through church. So it was just kind of a different experience. But when I hear my friends talk about dating in LA and just like being with them as I've seen them experience this. And even like before I was at church, like my experiences in LA, it was just like awful. My cousin also lived in LA and was Dallas and is like so much happier in Dallas and loves Dallas so much more. The dating scene is just tough as I feel like it makes sense because people are there for careers and they're kind of like more focused on themselves and whatever the way I describe LA is that LA kind of operates in extremes, right? So if it's good, it's really, really good. And if it's bad, it's really, really bad, you know? I just want to add like nine times out of ten. I would say even more than that, the guys in Texas are so much better. Like so much better. Even just like my closest friends growing up when my friends in LA would meet them. They were like, oh my God, guys like this exist. And like that was kind of what I was used to. Obviously you had like the frat boys who suck, but like that's just not who I'm friends with. No offense to frat boys, not everyone's like that. But you know what I'm saying, like the stereotypes, but for the most part, guys in Texas are like way more respectful, way more like loving, kind, chill. A lot of them are also like weirdly more just like confident and comfortable with themselves, whereas it's like really hard to find in LA. Texas as a whole, obviously just more family oriented. People are definitely a lot more down to earth, even if they have so much money because obviously Dallas is a very like, Dallas, there's a lot of money here too. And a lot of it is old money, oil money, things like that. But the difference is that people don't act differently because they have so much money in the way that people in LA do. It's a very different way of living. Obviously there are gonna be stuck up people in both places, but like nowhere near what LA is. LA also, people are trying to like kind of prove themselves and like buy certain things and whatever. It's a lot more like keeping up with the Joneses in LA. And then in Texas, people are just a lot more down to earth and normal. For me in my career, just like social media wise stuff, I love being around people who don't do what I do. Like if I hear one more person talk about being relevant on the internet, it literally is like tacky to me. Like I'm like, ew, that is so gross. But that's like the norm there, not for everyone. Like I also still love those people, but it's just like not my vibe, you know? I really like being in Texas, two and away from like that sort of bubble, but also obviously there's so many perks and benefits and so many people that I love in LA, so it just, it depends. So things to do in Dallas versus Los Angeles. In LA, there's obviously a lot of food, a lot of like drinking. I never really went out. I know there's like nightlife and stuff, but I'm like not your expert on that. There's more things to do outside. Like there's a lot of hikes in beaches obviously and things like that. When you live there, I will say you don't do that as much as you think that you will. So I'm also just like not a huge beach person, so it like doesn't matter. In Dallas, I love the food and like shopping and restaurants seen here a lot more. So I make a lot of Dallas TikToks. So any places that I go and that I love here, if you guys are looking for good Dallas rocks, it's just my TikTok, which is Kinsey Elizabeth Hay. But check that out because I share like restaurants and stores and just like cool neighborhoods and stuff. I'm gonna be better about it, but I do share a lot of like my Dallas stuff on there. You guys see my vlog, I don't do much. Obviously COVID has like really changed that, but I will say like Dallas is really freaking cool. There's a lot to do. There are actually even places to hike here. Obviously it's not like an LA hike. I would just say Dallas is a lot more like community driven. I remember when I saw the election and just seeing all the people in the streets in LA like really joined together. It was really cool to see because that just doesn't really happen in LA as much. But Dallas is way more community driven. People care a lot more to like know who you are and not like what you do. Like an LA, it's like, what do you do always? And I really don't love that. I get it. I get the heart behind it and I don't think everyone who asks that question like means poorly by it. And like we all ask people that because it's just like a conversation starter. But in LA, it definitely is a lot. It is a lot more superficial. But with that being said, I have met like the most incredible human beings in LA and like some of my absolute best friends in the entire world. And not everyone is like that, but it definitely is a thing, you know? Okay, so making friends and meeting people in Dallas versus LA. So obviously I grew up here, so I already had a lot of friends here. And then when I moved to LA, I already had friends there because of YouTube. So I don't know how much I can really, really speak to this because I've never moved to a city where I knew no one. In LA, I ended up making like 90% of my friends in church and in Dallas. I already had friends here, so that was like really easy. And also at the same time, I don't even feel like I have like that many friends here right now just because of COVID. It's not like I'm really going out and meeting people. But for me, I just always make friends at church. I'm sure you like meet people when you're like going out and stuff too. I just like, don't really leave my house. Traffic. There is traffic in Dallas, contrary to popular belief. It actually has gotten really bad. Like in the past, it's not really bad. It's just gotten a lot worse in the past few years. Again, it's not LA traffic and it's not all the time. It's not even close to LA traffic, but there is traffic here. Different vibes between the cities. So I just had such a different experience in LA I think because of just the community I was surrounded by, a lot of just like normal people who were really incredible that I loved so much who were also very down to earth. So I don't look at LA as like, oh, it was this really crazy, superficial place. I think it's totally who you surround yourself with. Like, it is a great place to live and it's just really who you surround yourself with. But as a whole, Dallas feels a lot more loving, community-based, a little more family-oriented. People are just nicer here and people in LA are actually nice. Like, I don't think that they're like these rude monsters, but just as a whole, like, you know, you have Southern hospitality here. So it's just totally different. People here are a lot nicer overall and just the community is a lot better here. Do I feel like I'm missing out on experiences in LA? So I feel like I was really afraid that I was going to move to Dallas and then be like, oh my gosh, I'm missing out on so much. I blah, blah, blah. I really wish I wouldn't have done that. And there has never been a time where I felt that way. With that being said, obviously we're in COVID and things have really gone mobile regardless. So no, I don't feel like I'm missing out. And no, I don't feel like I'm going to feel like I'm missing out because if so, I can just book a flight, get an Airbnb, go stay in LA and do what I need to do. But I don't feel like I'm missing out on any experiences in LA, career-wise, like, at all. But with that being said, obviously it's COVID and everyone is mobile right now. But I do think that that's going to have a long-lasting effect as well. And I think that that's something that might stay. So as of right now, no, I have never felt that. And I've been here for like 10 months at this point. So nine months, how it was? Yeah, nine months at this point. Although I miss about both places, when I'm there versus not there. So I recently had to go to LA and when I was there, it was crazy because I just felt like I never left and it was like, I still had community there. Still felt like I lived there and that's like a second home to me. It does feel like home to me. And then when I'm in Texas, it feels like home to me. I think I'm just lucky because I have like both worlds. When I am in LA, I miss Texas. I miss everything about Texas, but I love LA. And then when I'm in Texas, I miss my friends in LA and maybe like Blue Bottle. And honestly, I miss my studio and like going into the, just like everyone does, like going into work. I miss going into the studio and recording and things like that. But mainly it's just friends in LA that I miss and a few like coffee shops. And then when I'm in LA, I miss a lot more about Dallas if that makes sense. All right guys, so if you guys have any more questions, leave them in the comments down below. I hope I covered enough. I feel like I answered a lot, I hope. So I love you guys so much. Hope you guys enjoyed today's video and I will talk to you soon. Bye.