Well, I'm someone that has lived in all the major towns in Texas. San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Houston. I have relatives in all those areas as well.
Most have done the run down for you. But I can elaborate a little more.
Austin:
State capitol. Heavy democratic. Very much like NY politics there. Big college town. Many crowded streets with tons of the "college" and young adult vibe everywhere. Bar galore around places like 6th street. Traffic sucks if you have to use IH35 which goes through the middle of town from north to south. Otherwise traffic is OK just about everywhere else. Shopping is good, but not in the city itself. You'll find yourself heading out to Roundrock, or Buda, or Kyle a lot to places like Ikea, Fry's, Cabelas or whatever big specialty store you like to visit as none of that is in the city proper. Everything in the city proper is that "indy" feel along with the stores. It does have some nice tourist areas like around the capitol building. IT jobs are big here. Especially for gaming companies and start ups.
Dallas:
Twin cities really with that bastard child of Arlington nearby. Which means everything is really spread out. Traffic is both good and bad. The city feels like it has split personality majorly. Very democratic in parts, and very republican in others. Just depends on where you are. Again, whatever you would like to find in Dallas is going to be there, you just may have to do a bit of driving to get there. All the major cities in Texas are spread out some, but Dallas is the most sprawled. As I said about the duality of the city, you'll see places that look worse than the worst 3d world country as far as bums, dilapidated buildings and refuse everywhere. Then with a bit of driving you'll see multimillion dollar homes and some of the most beautiful and richest looking places. Prices on houses vary based on basically where you are wanting to live. Still, for nice house at a reasonable price you'll be commuting from outside the city in one of the suburbs as most of my relatives do. IT jobs aren't as big here of all the major cities. However, due to the sheer size of the city there are plenty of IT jobs available.
Houston:
Another dual nature city like Dallas, but the difference is that where Dallas is a bit more segregated in how places are located, Houston is not. You'll see 30 million dollar homes sharing a fence like with a 30K home that is about to fall down. Zoning in Houston was almost non existent. Traffic is literally the WORST in Houston than all the cities. I can you when I was living there of the many times I had 2-3 hour commutes to work that take less than 10 minutes when there is no traffic. It was common for that to happen. Houston is sprawled like Dallas, but not nearly as much. Housing prices in Houston I think are the highest off all the places. Houston is an oil port town turned massive. There is FAR more to do in Houston in my opinion than any other major town when it comes to recreation. Again the major problem is the traffic of getting anywhere, and the feeling that no matter what street you are on it feels like a bad street. Crime wise I think it's the worse of the major cities in Texas. If you like gambling though it is not far from Lousiana. Which means not far from Mardi Gras. For IT jobs it is as eclectic as the city. There are tons, but most have to do with the oil industry. Houston is more republican than democratic if memory serves me where but there are areas that are heavily D.
San Antonio:
The little town pretending to be all grown up. San Antonio is a very big military and tourist trap of a town. Beyond tourist things it lacks much of the sheer recreational things to do that the other cities have. Traffic is the lightest overall of all the major cities although there are some hotspots here and there. Housing prices are mostly cheap as well depending upon the area. REALLY cheap if you live outside the Bexar county. You can get a lot of house for your money with low taxes. San Antonio is mostly separated into South Side and North Side. South Side has commonly been the crime ridden bad area. It's not as bad as it used to be though especially with some urban development there in recent years such as Southpark Mall. There is a lot of suburban housing in massive development all over the place. I did mention it is a tourist trap right? Well, the majority of tourist are mexican nationals. While the other cities get some as well, San Antonio is the hot spot destination for them every time Mexico has a national holiday. Of which don't always coincide with US holidays as expected. San Antonio has less to look at surprisingly for a tourist trap of a city in my opinion though. Much of it has that small town feel, but much of it has that want to be a big town feel as well. Money politically is spent like that as well with San Antonio try to lately spend massive amounts of money on these huge sweeping highway exchanges. The inner political system is heavy D, but the outer areas are definitely R. IT jobs are mostly military or contractor based. Although there are some indish places like Rackspace and USAA. IT pay is all over the place as well comparatively.
Overall Texas is a mostly R state. Smaller municipalities have some heavy political D representation. There is no income taxes. Only sales and property taxes. Some areas are pretty expensive to buy a house, not as bad as places in NY, and some areas are downright cheap. My house would go for 4 times as much in NY or places in CA. At least. IT jobs here run the gambit from gaming shops, little mom and pop stuff, indy start ups, google wannabes, military contracts, and well established IBM feeling places. I mean the programmers are expected to wear the white shirt, black slacks, with black tie look. It really all depends on where you are in life and what you are looking to get out of it.
Looking for laid back small town feel? San Antonio or better yet, the smaller towns near there like New Braunfels or Seguin. Although the other cities have their small towns outside them as well, but commuting into town for an IT job for those places suck worse.
Looking for that young adult cafe, bars, live music everywhere with a grunge feel while having that packed in a sardine cane feel too? Austin is your best bet. IT jobs also reflect that feeling there more as well on average.
Looking for everything you could want and having everything in it's proper place feel? Mostly Dallas. But if you don't mind it being mixed up a bit more then that would be Houston.
One last note though. San Antonio is the only city that has no toll roads or ticket cameras all over. Supposedly has vowed never to do either of those, but who knows what the future holds.
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