Been riding North and Central Texas trails since the mid 70's. Yeah, I'm old.
And yeah, trails back then were merely cattle paths. But Texas MTB has evolved very nicely.
As already mentioned, the further south you go, the more rocky tech it gets. But there are two primary MTB "spots". Central Texas and North Texas. Honestly, for all 'round riding convenience, it's hard to beat North Texas (we call it DFW). If you live within Dallas Forth Worth, you're within 45 minutes of nearly 300 miles of single track ranging from flat fast XC, to slow crawling rock gardens, to fast "flowy" with man made features tossed about and 8'+ drop. Pretty much all trials are stacked loop. But rain can put a damper on things (as already mentioned). The soil here is clay, so rain shuts things down in order to save trails.
DORBA is the primary MTB org in DFW, but not the only. There's also the Fort Worth Mountain Bikers Association and the Weatherford Mountain Bike Club. The latter two have trails that rival central Texas rocky technical stuff. There are also a few trails that are not managed by these three organizations. You can find them on Trailforks.
A big plus for North Texas is relative proximity to other hot spots. Easy weekend MTB trips to places like Northwest Arkansas/Bentonville and Central New Mexico (Angle Fire, etc.). Check 'em out if you're not familiar with these two spots. DFW is also an easy long weekend to Colorado. We do trips there for front range and central slopes riding. DFW is, obviously, close enough to Central Texas for weekend rides. A fun trip is to Spider Mountain, the one and only lift served bike park in Texas.
The heat... yeah, Texas gets pretty warm, but no worse than much of the Southwest. The issue in Texas is humidity. It gets up there, and can make an 80 degree day feel like 100. But, you do acclimate. Yes, you can ride year 'round here. Most people I ride with from colder climates will accept a warm North Texas day to a cold winter day in the north any day of the week.
Since you're talking about moving for reasons that sound like job searching ("
my company won't be reopening in 2021"), then DFW may be the place for you. Despite the fact that DFW grows my nearly 10,000 new people a month moving into it, jobs are plentiful. As they say here, if you can't find work, you just don't want to work. As for real estate, it's a hot sellers market. The last time I looked in my area, average days on the market for a new listing was 4 days. But you can still get a newly built 3,000+ sf home for the price of a used mobile home on the west coast.
You can't go wrong, MTB wise, with North or Central Texas. I will say, though, that Central Texas has more to offer beyond mountain biking. Great lakes/boating activity, river rafting/tubing, the Hill Country, little German towns, great weekend car rides and getaways, incredible Springs (think bluebonnet explosion), caverns, good hiking, etc. And if you're into wine... over 100 of the 500+ wineries in Texas are in central Texas (check out Fredericksburg). Plenty of distilleries and micro breweries as well for us none wine drinkers. But all of this is within a 4 hour drive from DFW...
