Houston from Cleveland??? (Santa Fe, Center, Point: apartments, to rent, low crime)

[houstontxbound]

My husband and I are both 29 years old, no kids (yet), looking to leave Cleveland, Ohio for Houston, Texas area. We've both lived in Cleveland our whole lives and the only thing worse than the economy here, is the weather. We've found that the Houston area seems to offer most of the things we're looking for in our new home (hot weather, close to the Gulf, better economy than Cleveland, lots of tech jobs). We couldn't care less about art scenes or nightlife really, we enjoy the outdoors and going to the movies so we're not hard to please in that area. What we're looking for is a suburb of Houston that has good schools, houses to purchase in the low $100k's range, apartments/houses to rent (for when we first get there) for $1000 or less a month, close public beaches (less than an hour drive), and preferably less than an hour commute to the city including traffic, and of course low crime rate. Please, any info will help! As I said, we've lived in Cleveland our whole lives and have no idea what to expect when we leave here

[Oildog]

Don't move here without a job lined up.

www.har.com

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by Oildog

Don't move here without a job lined up.

www.har.com

Ditto this. You can't rent without a job - and you don't know where that job will be located - so you don't what part of town to even look. Houston is not big - it's BBBBBBBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

[cheryjohns]

This is the stuff that gives us a bad name.

[RCH99]

Originally Posted by cheryjohns

This is the stuff that gives us a bad name.

Yep, y'all really shouldn't smoke cigars at work...

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by RCH99

Yep, y'all really shouldn't smoke cigars at work...

LOL - I was talking about the Hawaiian shirts.

[houstontxbound]

I should have been more specific in my post lol we're doing research on cities online, then after we narrow that down to a few more specific places, we're going to go visit those places, then we'll start applying for jobs. We have no intentions of moving anywhere without jobs lined up lol. My only frame of reference is Cleveland since this is the only place we've ever lived and we don't travel. Here, you can live in any of the surrounding suburbs and be at work downtown within one hour but I'm assuming this isn't so in Houston??

[tstone]

You can do 45-60 mins each way in most cases. Some far-out suburbs, no luck though. You'll need to figure out where work is first because the business centers are spread through the whole metro.

As far as where to live, an unincorporated part of outer Harris County might be where to look for the low $100s.

[Malvie]

Originally Posted by houstontxbound

I should have been more specific in my post lol we're doing research on cities online, then after we narrow that down to a few more specific places, we're going to go visit those places, then we'll start applying for jobs. We have no intentions of moving anywhere without jobs lined up lol. My only frame of reference is Cleveland since this is the only place we've ever lived and we don't travel. Here, you can live in any of the surrounding suburbs and be at work downtown within one hour but I'm assuming this isn't so in Houston??

Find the jobs first.

Once you know where they are, you can plan your commute time accordingly.

The petrochemical industry and the Texas Medical Center are on the southeastern side, and both might offer you tech jobs. Point being, you can then look for housing down the Gulf Freeway (45 south). That would hit your goals of job, beach, and reasonable prices for housing (keeping in mind that there is housing in all price ranges in all parts of town; there is no zoning here and the whole thing is very spread out. Effectively five (5) "downtown" or "business" districts (high rises).

[houstontxbound]

Originally Posted by Malvie

Find the jobs first.

Once you know where they are, you can plan your commute time accordingly.

The petrochemical industry and the Texas Medical Center are on the southeastern side, and both might offer you tech jobs. Point being, you can then look for housing down the Gulf Freeway (45 south). That would hit your goals of job, beach, and reasonable prices for housing (keeping in mind that there is housing in all price ranges in all parts of town; there is no zoning here and the whole thing is very spread out. Effectively five (5) "downtown" or "business" districts (high rises).

Thanks, we had no idea that's how the city was laid out so that is very helpful information. From the research we've done so far, Santa Fe was one of the places we were very interested in seeing, which I believe is down 45 South.