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I’m currently living in Japan ( Originally from Buffalo New York ). I am planning to come back to the US soon and am looking to live in a great area to raise a family. I’ve come down to The Woodlands Texas and Raleigh North Carolina after about 2 years of research. I can understand I should probably visit each before finally choosing, but I would like to know if anyone is familiar with both by any chance? If so, could you tell me which you feel is better, and why? Any information would be extremely useful to me.
To answer the reasons why I’ve decided on these two:
I work from home, crime & safety, decent amount of things to do, warm weather, good schools & college opportunities for my children, among other things.
What I’m really interested in is what you guys feel about the area. This is the one element I cannot get through research and will very much help me decide. Both as of now look equal to me. I’m looking to buy a house within this year in one of the spots, so I’m trying to gather as much information as I can.
The Woodlands itself is nice, but metro Houston is so huge that it is not convenient to many of the area's points of interest. The Houston area also has a lot of very unappealing, cheaply developed sections partly due to the absence of zoning outside certain communities as well as the proximity to heavy industry. In the Raleigh area, the vast majority of communities are attractive and the development standards tend to be more consistent.
While both areas are in the South, the climate is quite different. Raleigh tends to be 5-10 degrees cooler year round and is much more likely to get occasional snow and ice in the winter, but if you're originally from Buffalo it would be very minor. Raleigh can get peripherally impacted by hurricanes that come onshore once in awhile, but I don't think they have ever had the type of event like Houston where there was about 50 inches of rain in a week. Houston is particularly prone to flooding impacts as the terrain is almost completely flat. The Woodlands may be a little safer given it is further removed from the Gulf.
I would prefer Raleigh, but The Woodlands should be fine if you prefer a very large metro area and more subtropical climate. For what it's worth, North Carolina has a very large population of former upstate New York residents, so it is probably a viable transition for many people. I don't think Texas tends to draw newcomers as much from that part of the country.
The Woodlands itself is nice, but metro Houston is so huge that it is not convenient to many of the area's points of interest. The Houston area also has a lot of very unappealing, cheaply developed sections partly due to the absence of zoning outside certain communities as well as the proximity to heavy industry. In the Raleigh area, the vast majority of communities are attractive and the development standards tend to be more consistent.
A huge area simply means more options for one to explore. And more chance to find something new every day.
The application of zoning by principle is a city-by-city basis, laws doesn't apply metro wide. And with the natural mix-use, ease of amenity access it provides, combined with OP's Japanese origin, the lack of zoning would actually be a benefit rather than an issue. As far as heavy industry, that is restricted to specific sections of town that are easy for the average person to avoid.
I should specify that if I choose Raleigh it would probably be the north Raleigh/ wake forest area.
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