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Old 02-23-2014, 08:43 AM
 
27 posts, read 39,376 times
Reputation: 19

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We are a couple with two children, ages 6 and 3, with a bully breed dog and three cats.

We are native northeasterners, I lived on Long Island, NY for 30 years and in CT for the last two. My wife is originally is from Boston, MA suburbs, lived with me in NY for 6 years then moved to CT.

Our preliminary research has shown us that we would enjoy the area for it's affordable housing and better climate. I have spoken to friends who have lived in Spring and Alvin for years and have given nothing but glowing reviews of the surrounding area.

The job market appears strong for me. I have applications out to firms in my profession located in Houston, Lake Jackson, Conroe, Silsbee, Beaumont and Huntsville.

I am also looking around the Austin and DFW area and the surrounding suburbs.

How would you compare Houston and the surrounding areas to Austin and Dallas?

I'd also like hearing from someone who has come from the north, how did you adjust, what was different about the way of life you were accustomed to, etc?

Obviously, schools are a priority. Secondly, my wife will be looking for work as she has not been able to find suitable full time employment here since we moved. She is a career medical biller and a freelance photographer who specializes in portrait settings and sports.

Not looking to buy at first, would be looking for a rental of a 2, preferably 3 bedroom apartment/house that is accepting of children and clean, well behaved pets. What is the rental market like for prices? Do real estate agents take clients out to look at rentals and does the landlord pay the commissions?

Thanks for reading.
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Old 02-23-2014, 10:08 AM
 
587 posts, read 1,132,515 times
Reputation: 578
there is a wealth of information on this board about people moving from the northeast to Houston. if you perform a search on the issue, you will come up with a lot of threads that ask the same thing.

for homelinks, you can try HAR.com that is the houston association of realtors website for purchasing/selling homes or rental information...lots of info there. since you have pets, Id go for a rental home that allows pets, because most apartments will want $250+ deposit for each pet.

depending on where you will be working, Houston does not have mass transit system like cities in the northeast do. You will need a car, and possible two cars here. If you going to be working in Beaumont for instance, unless you live there(which I wouldnt), the closest areas to Beaumont are Mont Beliveu and Baytown, both over 30-45 minutes away. Lake Jackson is south of Houston, so you can live in Alvin, Pearland, Angleton or Missouri City and have about a 30 minute drive or so to your job.

The housing here is more affordable than those in Long Island or in Connecticut, but we dont have basements here.....you wont have to worry about heating oil down here, but you better have a good AC system because you will run it max for 7-8 months a year, and possible at times in the winter too.

moving to a new area with no support system can be scary, especially with a family...I did it a few years ago when I left Houston for south florida and stayed there for three years before I came back. Unlike places on the east coast, Houston is a friendly city with a lot of resources from childrens activities to churches, to world class musems, to distinct business districts(downtown, medical center, energy corridor, petrochemical area, areonautics, along with business clusters in Sugarland, Katy, and the Woodlands) parks, sports from pee-wee leagues up to the major leagues and entertainment options.

Good Luck in your search, and if you
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Old 02-23-2014, 11:07 AM
 
Location: Sugar Land, TX
1,614 posts, read 2,653,644 times
Reputation: 2029
We moved here to Houston 10 years ago with a little family for my husband's job, and my husband and I are northeasterners too. Since moving here, we have added 2 more children to our family. It is scary to move somewhere where you know no one, as the previous poster said. But, Houston is a friendly and welcoming place, and because a lot of people here are transplants, it is not hard to fit in.

The biggest thing to get used to is the weather. I will say that the biggest issue is that the summer is longer. It starts earlier (May....even late April) and ends later (October). So when you are ready for fall (early September), it can still be in the 90s here until October. That is the worst part. We really don't get a fall like you are used to. Then again, it was 80 here earlier this week, while my family up north was freezing, so you take the good with the bad.

You also have to be prepared for hurricanes, no matter where you live in the area, but even more so if you are closer to the coast. Hurricane season goes from June (I believe) through November.

I really do think people here are overall nicer, and I much prefer living here over the northeast. There is just a different vibe here, and we prefer it. When we travel back home to visit family, we can feel the difference, and we usually can't wait to get back to Houston. That is just our opinion, your mileage may vary.

There is a lot to do here for families (our kids range in age from 4-9) and for adults as well. We really never get bored. The museums are top notch, the restaurant scene is amazing, shopping is great, there are lots of parks, festivals, etc. it is a fun place to be.

Anyway, good luck with the job search and your moving decisions.
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Old 02-23-2014, 12:43 PM
 
20 posts, read 26,158 times
Reputation: 33
KPmats10 - You and I both know that the salient point in your original post is the pit bull. (The total number of pets is also an issue, but of much less importance).

I am pretty sure that you already know that - all over the country - even apartment complexes that accept some pets will not accept pit-bull type dogs (and that four pets will almost certainly exceed the common number limit). Most landlords renting out houses also will not accept pit-bull type dogs, and even if they wanted to, they couldn't because the neighborhoods where their properties are located have HOA breed and total number restrictions.

But here is some Houston-specific information:

1. Since 2013, there have been several serious pit-bull incidents in the Houston metro area including the mauling death of a 4-year old boy in Jan 2013, the severe mauling of a 15-year-old girl in July 2013, and - very recently (Jan 5, 2014) - the mauling death of a woman and injury of two men from mauling by two pit bulls. So public consciousness about the dangers of pit bulls is currently quite high in the Houston area - and the public includes apartment managers, rental agents and landlords.

2. The Houston rental market is currently very "hot", in favor of landlords. With plenty of petless (and thus lower-risk) prospective tenants lining up to pay high rents, it would be financially irrational for the management/owner of any half-way decent property in a nicer area to assume the massive liability that a pit bull entails. You wouldn't be posting on this forum if your net worth was similar to Warren Buffett's, so there is probably no rent that you could offer that would compensate for the increased risk of ruinous lawsuits (not to mention the increase in the landlords' own commercial insurance premium - assuming their commercial insurance carrier doesn't just drop them if they accept a pit bull).

Probably most places that would accept would be in either extremely bad neighborhoods with high levels of violent crime and abysmal schools, or maybe somewhere in a remote, unincorporated where the schools might be iffy and the commute extreme. (The fatal mauling of that poor woman two months ago did not occur in River Oaks).

By the way - the landlords, apartment managers, HOA officials, rental agents, Realtors, and prospective neighbors simply will NOT CARE about the litany that you are probably marshalling even as you read this: MY dog is technically not a "pit bull" but some other bully breed; it's not bad dogs, it's bad owners; it's all "myths" about pit bulls; some dog attacks are by other breeds; MY dog is well-behaved and will never hurt a fly; and so on. These are words, but the liability risk is MONEY, and we all know which talks loudest.
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Old 02-23-2014, 01:19 PM
 
6,345 posts, read 8,091,913 times
Reputation: 8784
Quote:
Originally Posted by swopoe View Post
The biggest thing to get used to is the weather. I will say that the biggest issue is that the summer is longer. It starts earlier (May....even late April) and ends later (October). So when you are ready for fall (early September), it can still be in the 90s here until October. That is the worst part. We really don't get a fall like you are used to. Then again, it was 80 here earlier this week, while my family up north was freezing, so you take the good with the bad.

Swopoe nailed the weather. Summer is 5-7 months. Between the humidity and heat, you are looking at 90's for the heat index in October. I remember back in '09, when the heat index was in the 100's for October.

Houston heat index could hit 109 today - Houston Chronicle

The dew point is a good indicator on how hot it feels. Most people will start to feel uncomfortable with dew points over 65 degrees.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weath...s/whouston.htm
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weath...as/wdallas.htm

I lived in Houston for over 30 years. I moved to DFW area, 2 years ago. The summers are shorter up here. The summer is hot and humid from June to September in Dallas.

Houston is muggy for 6 months from May to September. October is a mixed bag with some years being in the 90+ heat index. There is not much of a dip in temps in the evening in either city with the concrete jungle effect. The heat lingers all night long. It's a big change from the NE.

Last edited by move4ward; 02-23-2014 at 01:39 PM..
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Old 02-23-2014, 01:53 PM
 
Location: TX
19 posts, read 26,426 times
Reputation: 36
Well, I am from Houston but have lived in NYC and the surrounding area (Connecticut to be precise), have lived in the Bay Area of CA, have lived in Miami and now I'm back in Houston.

The only positive of Houston vs NY/CT is cheaper housing (cheaper everything, actually) and "better weather" (for someone who enjoys soul-crushing hot humidity). And it's easier to run a business here. That's literally it.

Are you in Fairfield County? I lived in backcountry Greenwich for a year and Houston is really unattractive and lacks the natural beauty of that general area, the fall foliage, the beautiful beaches, the quick drive to the greatest city in the country NYC and all that entails (the amazing shopping, theatre, arts, food, etc). I miss the hiking, the beautiful country roads, the more beautiful terrain (Houston is completely flat and just strip malls), that NE area has better schools, people are generally better educated, crime is much lower, it seems like most people in Houston drive without auto insurance (hit 2x in 6 months and both drivers had no insurance), more interesting locations for a road or train tip...you can drive to Montreal, Vermont, Boston, Washington DC...the same distance here lands you in the middle of nowhere or in some Godforsaken rube-central in Louisiana or something. And again, the closest beach here is nasty Galveston. Up there you have the gorgeous Hamptons and the North Fork of Long Island.

Oh well..at least you will never have to shovel snow again..

Dallas is horrible, don't consider it. Austin is an ok town...but I prefer being on the coast.

Last edited by Ronan P.; 02-23-2014 at 02:12 PM..
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Old 02-23-2014, 02:21 PM
 
27 posts, read 39,376 times
Reputation: 19
Ronan -

I'm currently in Fairfield County, yes. I live in Stratford. I lived on Long Island prior for 30 years. Now that I'm gone, I detest Long Island and everything about it. Except the bagels.

The area is OK here, I like the community I'm in and the schools here. But my current employer is forcing us to take 25% pay cuts and I don't have any other job options at the moment. My salary here isn't cutting it for a family of four. My wife is going on 2 years unemployed with no job prospects and literally hundreds of fruitless interviews. The colors of the fall do nothing for me and I'm tired of snow. Last year, we had a record setting blizzard that crippled us for days, I had 3 feet of accumulation and drifts up to my shoulders. The cold is just unbearable and the heating costs are just going up, up and up. I think I'm ready for no more winter for a while.

I don't see myself living in the city itself either, I've been in the suburbs my whole life. I'm not much of a city person, I go in for my entertainment and go home.
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Old 02-23-2014, 02:55 PM
 
Location: The Greater Houston Metro Area
9,053 posts, read 17,159,653 times
Reputation: 15226
Go on to HAR.com to look at rentals. Yes, the landlord pays the realtor BUT, like jereviens so aptly explained, the dog is going to be the problem. It's not just the local restrictions - the landlord's insurance won't cover the house if there is a pit (or any other aggressive breed) involved, in more and more cases.

You might have more luck with the more rural areas surrounding the larger towns (like Magnolia, etc.) - rather than the more urban subdivisions.
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