Houston or Dallas Fort Worth for Flatbed Owner Op

Have some questions for Owner Operators. I have been OTR for the past 4 years. At the end of this year I will have my truck paid off and will want to start transitioning to Regional/Local. I own my trailer which is a flatbed. My goal is to be able to build a fleet and set down roots.
I am inclined towards Dallas due to the weather, but I feel like Houston has more opportunities.

1. Which city would you choose to build your fleet or at the very least make a comfortable living with a good work life balance?
2. Which city has more options to be able to build a local trucking business without too many entrenched companies already?

Any other questions that you may want me to consider would be greatly appreciated and all comments, advice as well.

 

Currently I am leased on. I run all 48 states but have been keeping east of I35. I do plan on getting my own authority but first I would need to rent/buy an apartment in Texas. My business model would be bootstrapping my growth and that means I wouldn’t be able to offer anything to customers in my first couple of years of moving to Texas. I would network with local brokers and while I am leased on with my current company I would have them keep me regional (ie bring me home to Texas for the weekends).
I have thought of staying OTR until I had the money to get my own authority and move to Texas all at the same time, but life seems to keep me OTR ( engine overhaul, major repairs etc).
I would like to elaborate more as I engage here and not make this a long winded response.

 

Appreciate the feedback, I would focus being regional for 2-3 years and then try to add local lanes with value propositions to the customer like drop and hooks. Do you think that might work?
I feel like with Trump open deck is going to be booming with all the factories and manufacturing that is going to be built.

 

Yeah I see them all the time.