I left Texas for Wisconsin and took a pay cut. It was worth it because I can now live mortgage-free.

• James McClure and his wife moved from Austin, Texas, to a smaller town in Wisconsin in 2023.
• McClure and his wife disliked Austin's rebranding and couldn't tolerate the Texas heat any longer.
• Selling their home in Austin's suburbs means they can live without a mortgage in a walkable town.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with James McClure, a 54-year-old product manager for a video game company, who moved from the suburbs of Austin to a college town in Wisconsin in December 2023. The essay, which also incorporates quotes from emails between McClure and BI, has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm a fifth-generation Texan.

I was born in Austin, went to the University of Texas, and after spending most of my 20s in New York City, returned to Austin, where I lived since 2001. My kids were born here, and it was the only place they had ever known.

My wife and I just bought a house in Wisconsin. Why? The easy answer is, "Everything went to hell when Molly Ivins died," but that's reductive.

Austin is just not the same city from the 1980s — back when South by Southwest "taking over" the city really just meant 6th Street was busy for the week. Sure, the politics also feel divisive here, but that seems to be a common theme across the country.

Was climate a reason for us moving? Sure. And real estate? Definitely. We were tired of the limited housing choices: suburbs, downtown big city, or the boonies.

We were over the weather in Texas

My wife is originally from Indiana and grew up in Southern California. She's never really been able to deal with Texas heat. The growing number of over-100-degree days in the summer didn't help, either.

Two almost-collapses of the power grid in the last two years and the Legislature's inability to do anything about it didn't fill me with confidence.

In 2023, we lost power for a week and it was 40 to 50 degrees inside our house. We had some very angry cats.

It's scary how close we seem to have gotten, from what I've read, to the possibility of the grid being down for weeks. It's astonishing.

We fell in love with a college town

By 2023, my wife had been looking for a place to move more north for over a year.

We're in our late 50s and early 60s, and being close to quality healthcare is essential for us. We also wanted to live somewhere with access to entertainment — music, theater, live shows — and the ability to dine out.

Frankly, that was one of the challenges we faced in Austin. To enjoy these activities, we had to travel all the way downtown, find parking, and deal with all the associated hassles.

We considered moving to states like North Carolina, Connecticut, and Wisconsin. However, what we noticed when looking at real estate in North Carolina and Connecticut was that it was more expensive than in Austin, and it was challenging to get something that was in a small town.

Our daughter attends college in Wisconsin. We first came to Appleton in June of 2021 before her first year of college at Lawrence University.

In September, we spent some time in the tiny town, which I still can't believe felt comfortable. It has an active downtown and music scene. It's about an hour and a half west of Milwaukee and about two hours east of Madison, the state capitol.

In 2023, my wife found a 3,200-square-foot house here that she absolutely fell in love with. We paid $515,000 for it, which is pretty much what we expect to get for our home in Austin once it sells. We're planning to list the Austin house for around $500,000.

Our new home is in the same town where our daughter is going to college. While many college kids might not want their parents on their turf, for us, it's a chance to be near her, and she's been very enthusiastic about it so far.

We're going to save money in Wisconsin

We moved to our house at the end of December.

We live within blocks of most of the things we need, and we have plenty of space for both of us to work from home. All of this comes at the same appraised value — actually a little bit less — than our 1970s-era house in the suburbs of Austin.

My wife and I are very fortunate. We lived in Austin for a long time, and our property appreciated while we were there to a point where, basically, once it's listed for sale, we'll be free and clear. We won't have a mortgage on our Wisconsin home.

Another bonus about the area is that we benefit from lower property taxes, reduced homeowners and auto insurance costs, and lower grocery prices.

Additionally, we've traded 30 to 40 days of hundred-degree heat for an equal number of days below freezing, and we get to experience some snow.

I'm taking a pay cut but we're saving more money

I'm able to work remotely so there has been no change in my work status other than a roughly 9% "market adjustment" — downward —to my pay package. I keep our health insurance and other benefits. As much as I don't relish the idea of a market adjustment, I do understand it from a more macro perspective.

Still, moving to Appleton has been worth it. In just a week, I've been able to walk by the Fox River more times than I got down to Lady Bird Lake in Austin all of last year.

I also like that things are a little slower here.

In Austin, we lived very close to Highway 183 and had to get on either 183 or MoPac to get just about anywhere. Aside from driving down to Milwaukee, we haven't been on a freeway in a week.

Having our college student daughter be able to come "home" for dinner when she wants to has also been a huge plus.

I do miss the certainty of catching the first run of a big Broadway tour in Austin. I know Bruce Springsteen won't be performing in Appleton anytime soon. However, Milwaukee is not that far, and neither is Minneapolis. So I feel that what we're compromising in terms of the big-city experience is minimal.