moving to fort worth area

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Specializes in Maternal newborn.

Hello I will be moving to the fort worth area. I keep hearing from other nurses don't expect to get paid in texas what you make here in california. As a new nurse I started off makeing $26/hr in 2005. Now I'm up to $46/hr as a per diem nurse. I think If I was a regular full time staff I would be making $33/hr. We have had a couple of pay raises to keep up with the other hospitals. My question is the pay that bad in the fort worth area? I am so worried because we are building a house and our mortgage will be triple what we are paying here. And I'm just affaid that I won't be making as much anymore? Also what are some good hospitals to work at. I wsa thinking about Baylor, Harris Methosdit, Hugluely Memeorial or Cook's children's

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Specializes in RN, Cardiac Step Down/Tele Unit.

Welcome to DFW! All I can tell you about the pay is what I have been offered for internships after I graduate. For new grads, it is generally $20/hr. I have no idea about experienced nurses.

From what I understand, pay is lower here than on the coast, but the cost of living is much less here. Housing is generally lower, but you mentioned your mortgage will be higher so I don't know how cost of living will affect you. All the hospitals you mentioned have good reputations, except I don't know much about Hughley. I love Harris Methodist HEB in the midcities area - it is a little smaller than the downtown hospitals and they really aim for a team atmosphere. There are 4 of us in my class doing our residencies there, and we all LOVE it. I have accepted an internship there for October!

Sorry I don't have much useful advice, but I wanted to say welcome!

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Specializes in Maternal newborn.

wow I'm surprised that the pay is so low for what nurses are responsible for. I have 2 yrs med surg experience and my new grad pay back in 2005 was $26/hr. but the cost of living is higher here but the property taxes in texas is so much more. I know my mortgage will be around $2000/month I just hope I can afford it now. thanks for all of your input.

Welcome to DFW! All I can tell you about the pay is what I have been offered for internships after I graduate. For new grads, it is generally $20/hr. I have no idea about experienced nurses.

From what I understand, pay is lower here than on the coast, but the cost of living is much less here. Housing is generally lower, but you mentioned your mortgage will be higher so I don't know how cost of living will affect you. All the hospitals you mentioned have good reputations, except I don't know much about Hughley. I love Harris Methodist HEB in the midcities area - it is a little smaller than the downtown hospitals and they really aim for a team atmosphere. There are 4 of us in my class doing our residencies there, and we all LOVE it. I have accepted an internship there for October!

Sorry I don't have much useful advice, but I wanted to say welcome!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
wow I'm surprised that the pay is so low for what nurses are responsible for. I have 2 yrs med surg experience and my new grad pay back in 2005 was $26/hr. but the cost of living is higher here but the property taxes in texas is so much more. I know my mortgage will be around $2000/month I just hope I can afford it now. thanks for all of your input.
My coworker, an RN with a BSN, worked night shift on the weekends on a med-surg floor, and earned $30 per hour with only 1 year of experience. If you want to earn closer to the $30 range, you might just have to work nights and weekends for the differential pay. Most hospitals pay $5 differential for night shift, and $6 differential on weekends. In addition, nursing homes start at $23 to $25 hourly for RNs.

By the way, I am a native Californian who moved to Fort Worth in 2005. I sold my house in Central California, made a nice profit, and moved into a larger and newly constructed house here in Texas. I am able to live comfortably without a spouse on an LVN pay rate of $19 hourly, but then again my mortgage is less than $400 monthly.

Also, be aware that the working conditions are very different in right-to-work states such as Texas. You and I come from California, which is a forced union state. Many of the West Coast nurses receive a culture shock when they start working at Texas hospitals. I'd hate to bring the gloomy news, but it seems that you have an exceedingly good situation going in California if your mortgage is less than $2,000 per month, with a PRN pay rate of $46 per hour. Good luck!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
wow I'm surprised that the pay is so low for what nurses are responsible for.
The starting pay rates are rather low in virtually ALL of the Southeastern states.
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The PRN rate at our hospital is 32.00 for unit based and I think it goes higher if you agree to float to different units.

I'll go off on my soapbox here, but a LOT of people are getting into trouble down here by stepping off into mortgages they cannot afford. You can get a nice house here for less than $200K. Better to start out with a lower cost house and move up later when you have the money SAVED than to start off with a pinch.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I'll go off on my soapbox here, but a LOT of people are getting into trouble down here by stepping off into mortgages they cannot afford. You can get a nice house here for less than $200K. Better to start out with a lower cost house and move up later when you have the money SAVED than to start off with a pinch.
I was going to mention something about the $2,000 mortgage a few days ago but made the decision to refrain from doing so, because I did not want to offend the original poster, veer too heavily off the subject, or annoy her with unsolicited advice. However, the information was divulged on this message board, so I'll take my chances and respond. ;)

All of my nurse friends and coworkers, LVNs and RNs alike, are homeowners and would cringe at the mere thought of a $2,000 mortgage. The DFW area has 1,000 houses going into foreclosure monthly as the result of working people who buy more house than they can reasonably afford. In addition, many of the people who relocate here from California and the other expensive locales gravitate toward buying larger houses with significantly cheaper mortages than they had when they lived on the West Coast. For me, the point of moving from California to here was to make a killing off the cheaper cost of living, and not to kill myself with a mortgage that might turn into the white elephant...

I am wholly aware that all of our situations are different, so I emphasize that my intent was not to offend any person.

[bANANA]Good luck, and welcome to Texas![/bANANA]

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

$2000 mortgage :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:. i'm feeling faint.

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Just to throw in another unsolicited bit of info... I have several friends who moved here from the west coast, bought homes they thought they could afford, and then received their first August electric bill.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

lol...so true . my electric bill is $500 this month and we really have not had it hot......yet!!!!

just to throw in another unsolicited bit of info... i have several friends who moved here from the west coast, bought homes they thought they could afford, and then received their first august electric bill.
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Just to throw in another unsolicited bit of info... I have several friends who moved here from the west coast, bought homes they thought they could afford, and then received their first August electric bill.

Yeah, those McMansions are WAY expensive to cool. We have 2500 sq.feet of one story house and we had electric bills last summer of close to 500.00 ! acckkk.

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Specializes in Maternal newborn.
I was going to mention something about the $2,000 mortgage a few days ago but made the decision to refrain from doing so, because I did not want to offend the original poster, veer too heavily off the subject, or annoy her with unsolicited advice. However, the information was divulged on this message board, so I'll take my chances and respond. ;)

All of my nurse friends and coworkers, LVNs and RNs alike, are homeowners and would cringe at the mere thought of a $2,000 mortgage. The DFW area has 1,000 houses going into foreclosure monthly as the result of working people who buy more house than they can reasonably afford. In addition, many of the people who relocate here from California and the other expensive locales gravitate toward buying larger houses with significantly cheaper mortages than they had when they lived on the West Coast. For me, the point of moving from California to here was to make a killing off the cheaper cost of living, and not to kill myself with a mortgage that might turn into the white elephant...

I am wholly aware that all of our situations are different, so I emphasize that my intent was not to offend any person.

[banana]Good luck, and welcome to Texas![/banana]

I want to thank everyone for their comments. I know my mortgage is a bit extreme but, you can't get a house as big as ours in california for that size mortgage payment. We tried looking at smaller houses but, I do have 5 kids so we went as large as we possibly could. Hey when a see a 4500sqft house starting off at 270,000 that's cheap to me. Considering we are selling our current 1400 sqft house for that same amount. Hey thanks, I understand your concerns and have addressed this issue with my husband before we started house hunting. Thanks for all your comments. I look forward to all of your comments and future chats.

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