CA people that are moving to Texas to "escape the tax burden" better take a hard look before they sell the California Dream. Property taxes here are not cheap and they could be in for a shock. I've talked to a few that found out we - TX - didn't live up to the hype. Certainly that depends on where you land. As an example - we're in Taylor County - start looking at city, county and school rates in surrounding counties and if we moved 30 miles in about every direction we'd pay more, all else held equal. Houston/Harris county is nuts - you'll have county, school, likely water, street, subdivision, HOA and who knows. If you don't like the idea of an HOA, better ask when looking because most new subdivisions will have them. Rural DOES NOT guarantee your taxes will be lower - most likely as a rate per $100 valuation on a home the rates will be higher. Much higher. Note we have counties with 1000+ sq/miles and maybe 900 people.
CA average is #16 - TX is #46
https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/property-taxes-by-stateCompare TX and NM - TX no state income tax, no tax on most groceries. NM - state income tax, tax on groceries but property tax less than half TX. I've noted that a mobile home in NM not on a permanent foundation may not be taxed as a "home", so tax could be even less. Solution - live in a mobile home outside of Las Cruces, drive to El Paso to buy groceries LOLOL
You will find less "regulation" in most places, especially rural TX. Lots of smaller cities have very little building restrictions, low permit fees if they issue permits at all. That certainly differs from CA. Housing is certainly cheaper. 500K in CA is a 3-1 fixer upper, 500K here is a big house on acreage.