Moving to Texas: Utilities, DMV Deadlines, and the Fine Print

Moving to Texas starts two clocks: you have 30 days to register your vehicle and 90 days to get a Texas driver license, and in most of the state you must actively choose your electricity company because nobody assigns you one by default. Texas runs the largest deregulated retail electricity market in the country, which means picking a power plan is a real decision with real failure modes — not a box you check.

In most of Texas, the poles and wires are owned by a regulated utility — Oncor around Dallas–Fort Worth, CenterPoint around Houston — but the company that sells you electricity and sends the bill is a retail electric provider, or REP, that you pick yourself. The state's official comparison site is Power to Choose (powertochoose.org), run by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The big exceptions: Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and most rural electric co-ops are not deregulated. There, you sign up with the local utility — Austin Energy, CPS Energy — and the choice question disappears.

Every retail plan comes with an Electricity Facts Label, or EFL: a standardized disclosure showing the average price per kilowatt-hour at 500, 1,000, and 2,000 kWh of monthly usage. Read all three numbers. Plenty of plans advertise a low rate that only exists at exactly 1,000 kWh, with bill credits that vanish if you use 999 or 1,100. A Texas summer cooling load can push a three-bedroom house past 2,000 kWh, so the 2,000 kWh figure is often the one that predicts your August bill. Check the early termination fee too — moving out of the service area usually waives it with proof, but leaving for a better rate does not.

Choose a fixed-rate term over a variable product unless you have a specific reason not to. After Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 — when some customers on wholesale-indexed plans received bills in the thousands of dollars — Texas moved to push those products out of the residential market, but variable-rate plans that drift upward month to month still exist. A 12-month fixed rate is the boring, correct default for a new arrival.

On the vehicle side, Texas gives new residents 30 days to register. The sequence is Texas auto insurance first, then inspection if your county requires it — Texas recently eliminated the annual safety inspection for most passenger vehicles, but emissions testing still applies in the larger metro counties — then the county tax assessor-collector's office for registration. Budget for the new resident fee (currently $90 in lieu of sales tax on a vehicle you bring with you) plus title and registration costs, and check TxDMV's official new-resident page for your county's exact requirements.

The driver license is a separate agency and a separate trip: the Texas Department of Public Safety, not the DMV. You have 90 days, but don't sleep on it — DPS appointment slots in the Dallas, Houston, and Austin metros book out weeks ahead. Bring proof of identity, your out-of-state license to surrender, and two documents proving Texas residency, like a lease plus a utility bill. That ordering is why setting up electricity early helps: the first bill doubles as residency proof.

If you bought a house, file for the homestead exemption with your county appraisal district. Texas has no state income tax and makes up for it with property taxes that run among the highest effective rates in the country — the homestead exemption removes a slice of your home's value from school district taxation and caps how fast your assessed value can rise. Amounts and deadlines change with legislation, so check your county appraisal district's page rather than a forum post.

Water, sewer, and trash usually come from the city — except in many newer suburbs, where they come from a MUD, a municipal utility district, which is a special taxing district created to finance the neighborhood's infrastructure. MUD taxes appear on your property tax bill and MUD water rates can run higher than city rates, so if you're house shopping, ask whether the address sits in a MUD before you fall in love with it.

This is the kind of move where a single ordered list beats heroics. LocateFlow's state-aware checklist sequences the Texas-specific deadlines, and its provider suggestions are checked against FCC and DOE data — with the honest caveat that federal datasets are reported at an area level, so always confirm your exact address with a provider before signing a contract.

The short version: First, set up electricity through Power to Choose (or your municipal utility) and keep the first bill as residency proof. Second, get Texas auto insurance and register your vehicle at the county tax office within 30 days. Third, book a DPS appointment now and transfer your license within 90 days. Fourth, confirm whether your address is served by a city utility or a MUD for water and trash. Fifth, if you bought, file the homestead exemption with your county appraisal district.