re: Considering a move out of Louisiana...Edited to answer some of your questions

Houston is an easy answer, but there are so damned many people here and that "cost of living in a big city" line is becoming more and more false every day.

Houston has gotten just as expensive as every other big city, and with no mass transit our traffic has gotten much noticeably worse in the last 3 to 5 years.

It is nice that it is close to Louisiana if you still have family or a place there you want to visit, though.

If you want Texas, I'd honestly look at San Antonio. It doesn't have all the glitz and glam of Austin but there's jobs, affordable living, culture, reasonable traffic, proximity to beautiful outdoor spaces, and a slower pace of life more akin to Louisiana than Houston, Dallas, or Austin.