Anyone here from Texas? I have a few questions for you Texans

[txrandom]

Originally posted by: Arkitech

Originally posted by: CPA
West side of Houston - Katy. Low crime, one of the best school districts in Texas, No. 1 High School Football team in the nation this year (USA Today), growing area, 25 - 30 minutes to downtown Houston (1 hour+ during rush hour until the highway widening is done), minutes from the Energy Corridor, home prices from $120K - $1M+. You can still find homes with acerage at decent prices.

Sounds good, I'll add that area to my list. :thumbsup:

Some more Houston Suburbs-
Kingwood/Atasocita: Been growing in the past couple of years a lot. Especially the Atasocita side. About the same time to downtown as from Katy. Home range is about the same. Football team sucks, but our basketball team went to state 3 years in a row winning one of them. Good school district, but Kingwood High School is being remodeled, which should be done by start of next school year. Atasocita High School was built a year or two ago. Lake Houston is right on Kingwood and Atasocita.

Woodlands: Pretty much the same story. Wide range of homes, good school, good sport, etc. Nearby to Lake Conroe. Nicer lake than Lake Houston, but not actually on the Woodlands. The Woodlands has a really nice mall with nice business buildings and hotels nearby. You can't say the same for Kingwood.

Sugarland: I don't know much about the area, but it's similar to the 3 above.

I would check out all four of these areas.

Dallas/Fort Worth-
Plano: Have only been to Dallas once, but I've heard a lot of good things about Plano. My sister is currently a teacher at one of the high schools.

Here are some other Dallas/Fort Worth areas that I frequently hear about: Grapevine, Garland, Richardson, Cedar Hill,

 

[grohl]

Lived in the DFW area for 17 years. Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas. I know most of the surrounding cities.

Real estate generally is pricier from west to east.

Love the area. Anything you want to do is here. Melting pot of people with ethnic concentrations throughout. Real estate overall is CHEAP compared to most of the nation.

DFW airport is awesome, nonstops to most of the county and of course international too.

Biggest drawback is scenery (except lakes) and traffic (nothing on CA or NY though). Enjoy the weather upgrade and good luck! PM me if you have specific ?s about this area.

 

[maziwanka]

parents just bought a house in houston - really nice for the price and great neighborhood.

 

[Safeway]

You could live up north, in Sherman. That area is really growing, and you are extremely close to Lake Texoma. Low cost of living, too.

Otherwise, Dallas is awesome. Austin is awesome.

San Antonio and Houston are not awesome.

 

[robphelan]

Originally posted by: Safeway
You could live up north, in Sherman. That area is really growing, and you are extremely close to Lake Texoma. Low cost of living, too.

Otherwise, Dallas is awesome. Austin is awesome.

San Antonio and Houston are not awesome.

actually, san antonio is a great place to raise a family - the same cannot be said for Dallas.

Austin traffic is atrocious. so is DFW & Houston. San Antonio is not too far behind, but it's still better than the other 3.

SA has lots for families to do. It isn't too far away from Austin if you want to attend a concert. SA is often skipped because we're not a "college town".

home prices are just now catching up to the rest of the state. Ours were on the low end of the scale for many years (my house = 2150 sq ft on half an acre = 169k in a great neighborhood) right outside the city. Plenty of trees all around. SA arguably has the best culture in the state of the big cities. Dallas & houston are full of transplants. Austin has all the college kids.

Also, here you can afford to live near your employer - you don't see people commuting 30-40 miles each way just to get to work.

Some downsides:
If you like to travel by air, 50% of the time you will have make a connecting flight in DFW or Houston. If you like to travel by car - it takes 7-8 hours to get out of SA to a neighboring state. 2-3 hours to mexico.

Hot, hot, hot - there are only 2 seasons here - Summer and January.

depending on what you do for a living, employment choices can be limited.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: CPA
West side of Houston - Katy. Low crime, one of the best school districts in Texas, No. 1 High School Football team in the nation this year (USA Today), growing area, 25 - 30 minutes to downtown Houston (1 hour+ during rush hour until the highway widening is done), minutes from the Energy Corridor, home prices from $120K - $1M+. You can still find homes with acerage at decent prices.

I visited a friend in Katy a few years ago. It was such a gorgeous town. Giant grassy fields, lots of pretty landscaping.

 

[spacejamz]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: CPA
West side of Houston - Katy. Low crime, one of the best school districts in Texas, No. 1 High School Football team in the nation this year (USA Today), growing area, 25 - 30 minutes to downtown Houston (1 hour+ during rush hour until the highway widening is done), minutes from the Energy Corridor, home prices from $120K - $1M+. You can still find homes with acerage at decent prices.

I visited a friend in Katy a few years ago. It was such a gorgeous town. Giant grassy fields, lots of pretty landscaping.

any updates on the construction to widen the Katy Freeway (I-10) from the Tollway to the Katy Mills Mall? The last time I was there, it was a major b1tch and didn't look like it would be done anytime soon (last year??)...

 

[RightIsWrong]

Originally posted by: scott
You'll also have to remember that moving from Chicago to Texas will be like moving 20 years back in time.

I moved from Pittsburgh to Mississippi and went back in time about 30 years. Thankfully, we moved from Mississippi to Austin and rejoined the 21st century.

We absolutely love Austin. It's a very eclectic town with a lot of things going for it. If you are younger or don't have kids and enjoy nightlife and/or live music, you will be in heaven. The population is very health conscience and you will see a lot of bikers and hikers and a gym every couple of blocks it seems.

The mindset of the majority of people is very liberal as evidenced by the city's unofficial slogan of "Keep Austin weird." This is just one of the effects of being a major college city from my experience.

As people have stated, housing is still pretty strong. The prices have slowed compared to past appreciation but it is still appreciating unlike a lot of the country.

We have made trips to some of the other metro areas (Houston, DFW and San Antonio) and have liked them all. Houston and Dallas are absolutely massive in terms of footprint. Anything and everything that you could want is available to you. San Antonio was more comparable to Austin in size but didn't seem anywhere near as nice to us.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: CPA
West side of Houston - Katy. Low crime, one of the best school districts in Texas, No. 1 High School Football team in the nation this year (USA Today), growing area, 25 - 30 minutes to downtown Houston (1 hour+ during rush hour until the highway widening is done), minutes from the Energy Corridor, home prices from $120K - $1M+. You can still find homes with acerage at decent prices.

LOL... Katy is a suburban hellhole. I know a lot of people who live with their parents there. I can't imagine anyone wanting to move there from Chicago-- I imagine Chicagoans know better than Texans, who don't know anything BUT suburban sprawl.

Houston does have some decent oldish suburban neighborhoods, but Austin wins.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Someone said it would be the biggest mistake of your life, and it could very well be. If you go, just prepare for some culture shock.

Texas is absolutely full of intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB. My Uncle lives in Dallas in a fabulous suburb with big houses (4000 - 12000sqft). He is a salesman, and for a long time he was the general sales manager for a large company, making big dollars, but after about three years his company replaced him with someone "more in touch with the local community", which meant someone Evangelical. My Uncle is Catholic, which just isn't self-righteous and intolerant enough of a religion for down there. And that's Dallas, the least backwater town in the state.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
Someone said it would be the biggest mistake of your life, and it could very well be. If you go, just prepare for some culture shock.

Texas is absolutely full of intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB. My Uncle lives in Dallas in a fabulous suburb with big houses (4000 - 12000sqft). He is a salesman, and for a long time he was the general sales manager for a large company, making big dollars, but after about three years his company replaced him with someone "more in touch with the local community", which meant someone Evangelical. My Uncle is Catholic, which just isn't self-righteous and intolerant enough of a religion for down there. And that's Dallas, the least backwater town in the state.

Austin doesn't have that problem (as much)...

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
Someone said it would be the biggest mistake of your life, and it could very well be. If you go, just prepare for some culture shock.

Texas is absolutely full of intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB. My Uncle lives in Dallas in a fabulous suburb with big houses (4000 - 12000sqft). He is a salesman, and for a long time he was the general sales manager for a large company, making big dollars, but after about three years his company replaced him with someone "more in touch with the local community", which meant someone Evangelical. My Uncle is Catholic, which just isn't self-righteous and intolerant enough of a religion for down there. And that's Dallas, the least backwater town in the state.

GWB may have spent some of his childhood years in TX but he went to high school is Mass. and was born in Conn.

I'm more of a Texan than he is since I spent age 4-18 in Texas and attended Texas public schools. I even lived in Midland for three years.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner

Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
Someone said it would be the biggest mistake of your life, and it could very well be. If you go, just prepare for some culture shock.

Texas is absolutely full of intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB. My Uncle lives in Dallas in a fabulous suburb with big houses (4000 - 12000sqft). He is a salesman, and for a long time he was the general sales manager for a large company, making big dollars, but after about three years his company replaced him with someone "more in touch with the local community", which meant someone Evangelical. My Uncle is Catholic, which just isn't self-righteous and intolerant enough of a religion for down there. And that's Dallas, the least backwater town in the state.

Austin doesn't have that problem (as much)...

Because Austin has about 50,000 college kids in it from around the country (world.)

Texas is very conservative, but it's a good place to live. I live in a Dallas\Ft. Worth Suburb, and there's very little crime, nice neighbors, good weather, etc.

One thing to keep in mind with Texas though, they don't have any compunction about using eminent domain. If they want to build a road, or a shopping mall, whatever, they will take your house and tear it down. So don't live in an "at risk" area.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
Someone said it would be the biggest mistake of your life, and it could very well be. If you go, just prepare for some culture shock.

Texas is absolutely full of intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB. My Uncle lives in Dallas in a fabulous suburb with big houses (4000 - 12000sqft). He is a salesman, and for a long time he was the general sales manager for a large company, making big dollars, but after about three years his company replaced him with someone "more in touch with the local community", which meant someone Evangelical. My Uncle is Catholic, which just isn't self-righteous and intolerant enough of a religion for down there. And that's Dallas, the least backwater town in the state.

Hate to break it to you but the whole country is filled with intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB.

I saw move to Texas, anywhere is Texas is going to be better for you and your family than Chicago because here, we let you protect yourself.
I'm in Richardson and it is pretty nice, and Throckmorton once again is talking out of his ass. We have trees, lots of them. My yard is full of trees, all my neighbors yards are full of tress, the whole damn area is full of trees. Sure we don't have any old growth 150+ foot tall trees, but this is prairie land.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: spacejamz

any updates on the construction to widen the Katy Freeway (I-10) from the Tollway to the Katy Mills Mall? The last time I was there, it was a major b1tch and didn't look like it would be done anytime soon (last year??)...

should be completed by november. almost all of the paving is done (all of the paving is done from BW8 out to the mills mall, the stretch you were on).

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: spacejamz

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: CPA
West side of Houston - Katy. Low crime, one of the best school districts in Texas, No. 1 High School Football team in the nation this year (USA Today), growing area, 25 - 30 minutes to downtown Houston (1 hour+ during rush hour until the highway widening is done), minutes from the Energy Corridor, home prices from $120K - $1M+. You can still find homes with acerage at decent prices.

I visited a friend in Katy a few years ago. It was such a gorgeous town. Giant grassy fields, lots of pretty landscaping.

any updates on the construction to widen the Katy Freeway (I-10) from the Tollway to the Katy Mills Mall? The last time I was there, it was a major b1tch and didn't look like it would be done anytime soon (last year??)...

I dunno. I took Westheimer to get in between Houston and Katy. When I finally left Houston, I took 290 because I was told to avoid I-10. But this was three years ago.

 

[Leros]

dp

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner

Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
Someone said it would be the biggest mistake of your life, and it could very well be. If you go, just prepare for some culture shock.

Texas is absolutely full of intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB. My Uncle lives in Dallas in a fabulous suburb with big houses (4000 - 12000sqft). He is a salesman, and for a long time he was the general sales manager for a large company, making big dollars, but after about three years his company replaced him with someone "more in touch with the local community", which meant someone Evangelical. My Uncle is Catholic, which just isn't self-righteous and intolerant enough of a religion for down there. And that's Dallas, the least backwater town in the state.

Austin doesn't have that problem (as much)...

Because Austin has about 50,000 college kids in it from around the country (world.)

Texas is very conservative, but it's a good place to live. I live in a Dallas\Ft. Worth Suburb, and there's very little crime, nice neighbors, good weather, etc.

Lubbock has 30,000+ college kids in it and somehow they remain conservative and extremely Christian. I remember being on the Texas Tech campus and being amazed at how conservative it was. Although the conservatives there complain about campus being too liberal.

I grew up in Lubbock which was really conservative, now I live in Austin which is better. In Lubbock and other areas of Texas (especially West Texas) if you are atheist or something else that Christians don't like, you pretty much have to keep it yourself unless you know who are you around. I got baptized at a Methodist church when I was 13 just so I could have a legit answer for when people asked me what denomination I was. They don't ask "Are you Christian?", they ask "What denomination are you?". Now I can say, "I was baptized in a Methodist church" which is enough to shut them up and make think I'm not the anti-Christ.

 

[Metron]

$200,000 will buy you a nice 4 bedroom / 3 bath / 2 car garage / pool with 3,110 sq. ft in a nice area of Fort Worth with big trees

May I commend you to Fort Worth, the smaller (about 250,000) city of the D/FW metroplex? Lower crime rate than Dallas (long known to understaff the police department), great character, well developed and safe downtown area (Sundance Square, Bass Performance Hall, Museum District (MOMA designed by Tadao Ando)), abundant places to eat, mild winters and very hot summers.

Texas homes generally don't have basements (the high clay soils don't make them structurally sound).

D/FW had the highest population increase of any other metro area in the country last year, due to the low cost of living, lack of real estate over speculation, and available jobs Dallas-Fort Worth added more than 162,000 residents between July 2006 and July 2007, more than any other metro area.. With a combined population of just over 6 million, it's now the 4th largest metro area in the country (behind NYC, LA, and Chicago).

 

[LordMorpheus]

Coming from Chicago go to San Antonio or Austin. both are growing cities, probably room for anothe real estate dude or two.

Personally, I like San An, but I've spent way more time in San An than in Austin.


<- current Houston resident.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Coming from Chicago go to San Antonio or Austin. both are growing cities, probably room for anothe real estate dude or two.

Personally, I like San An, but I've spent way more time in San An than in Austin.


<- current Houston resident.

 

[Wreckem]

Grapevine/Colleyville

Its smack dab in the middle of the DFW metroplex.
Great schools, great affordable housing. 30 minutes to downtown Fort Worth(in traffic), and 30 minutes to downtown Dallas(in traffic).

 

[HardcoreRobot]

lived in texas for ~14 years. grew up in Katy, which has been mentioned a few times in this thread already. it is suburbia. cheap housing, good schools, no culture. houston is close, but not really accessible IMO. ugly place also, IMO. super flat and clear cut - whatever natural beauty existed was levelled and replaced with concrete, sod and saplings. some of the older, more established neighborhoods are actually quite pretty, but then you are moving out of the realm of cheap housing. based on what my parents have said, the real estate market doesn't move too much down there. with so much open space, cheap labor and materials, most people opt to build or buy new instead of look at older properties. (why buy a 15 yr old house when you can get brand new for the same price?). yet, its not really a terrible place to raise a family either. i got a great education and the low cost of living really helped our family live comfortably.

i lived/went to school in austin for 4 years. by far my favorite city in texas. definitely sounds like a better fit for you. i think it is still growing quickly, emerging real estate markets, great music scene. lots more 'personality' than anywhere else in texas.

in regards to running into religious conservative crazies... as long as you stick to urban or developing areas im not sure they will even be a factor. houston is actually a very multicultural city in my experience, obviously lots of hispanic influence, and the oil industry brought in a TON of people from all of the country/world (like my family). if you start hanging out in small towns off the beaten path... yeah it will feel like the south.


texas is hot. oppressingly humid the closer you get to the coast. austin is a bit drier. hard to sum up the climate in texas though, its such a large state. as i said, texas is very flat, water table is very high, basements not common.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
Someone said it would be the biggest mistake of your life, and it could very well be. If you go, just prepare for some culture shock.

Texas is absolutely full of intolerant pseudo-Christians just like GWB. My Uncle lives in Dallas in a fabulous suburb with big houses (4000 - 12000sqft). He is a salesman, and for a long time he was the general sales manager for a large company, making big dollars, but after about three years his company replaced him with someone "more in touch with the local community", which meant someone Evangelical. My Uncle is Catholic, which just isn't self-righteous and intolerant enough of a religion for down there. And that's Dallas, the least backwater town in the state.

Sounds like you've never been here I love how people are quick to give advice on things they know nothing about

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Guess I'll throw my .02 in. I was born in Ft. Worth and have lived in the DFW area or suburbs for all but 2(Wash. DC) of my 50yrs, and have spent much time in almost all the cities mentioned in this thread.

I agree with those who've said as long as you stick to the major cities and suburbs you really can't go wrong. My favorite areas are DFW(of course), Corpus, Austin, & San Antonio. I particularly love the Corpus/south padre area for the ocean and the incredible beaches on S. padre, the lack of people and traffic (except spring break), the laid back Hispanic culture and the tropical climate (very humid but the heat is moderated by the gulf).

Being from Chi town(been there many times and love the town) you would probably feel the most at home in DFW. We actually get some winter weather here with the occasional ice or snow and we have periods of the year where it's windy as hell. And DFW is truly a melting pot with undoubtedly the most diverse culture of any of the big texas cities. If you like national level musical entertainment and or pro sports this place is heaven. We have at least 3 major concert venues that attract all the big tours. We of course have the Cowboys, the Mavericks, the Rangers, the Stars, pro soccer, arena football, and countless minor leage sports franchises. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 300+ golf courses, major established PGA tour stops. The area is a major sporting meca that encompasses everything from Deer hunting, many many lakes some of which sport national bass pro tournaments, pro motocross, Nascar, formula 1, pro rodeo, the largest stockshow in the southwest just to name a few