Areas in Houston that are similar to Southern Orange County, California (appointed, crimes)

[Houston Area Man]

Originally Posted by ainsley1999

LA is unnecessarily expensive, sort of unmerited if you ask me. Our house on the hill was this artsy ranch house, with cracked foundation (young first time parents buying for the great school district, clueless and bidding over competitors.), in 2010 it was $688/sqft, $1000/sqft in 2019 when we sold it.-it’s ridiculous and we refuse to get dragged into the money game like that.

I’m very sensitive with a place’s energy. For some reason I loved LA but it often made me feel sad. Every time our car drove past the Dodger Stadium tunnels, I always started to feel this sadness, this dark undercurrent and once the car passed the tunnel all the trees/topography appeared to be darker. I couldn’t explain. I often described David Lynch’s movies perfectly depicted what LA is, it’s such a sunny city yet quite often it could feel sad and lonely. Besides my family has been in LA since the ‘80s and we lived in LA for ten years, we were ready to change the scenery.

(Years later I found out where the Dodger Stadium tunnels were in fact had a very sad, horrifying story: Google Marion Parker. It’s not for the faint of heart. That poor little girl. There are quite a lot of gruesome cases like that in that part of LA: another famous case, Black Dahlia.)

There was a street near the glitzy posh Sarasota that I always felt sad passing by too. The same sunny beautiful weather and attractive coastal resort, but it didn’t connect to me.

Houston is very sunny, though not very pretty pretty, not very touristy, but I never felt that sadness here. Houston has a kind of warm and open energy that I feel calm and relaxed here.

Chicago, compared to the coastal cities, is surprisingly affordable. I have a friend in Chicago who’s a luxury fashion designer, just bought a house that’s 8292 square feet in the supposedly “swanky” area of Burr Ridge area for $700k last year. I was shocked. But I have zero desire to move to Chicago. Yes it’s a great city but it didn’t speak to me the way Houston did.

I don’t mind Houston being “flat”, after living on the very steeply hill for 9 yrs where your child couldn’t even ride a bike and had to worry about wild fire/coyotes I welcome the flatness.

Houston is about people and slow paced life. People are nice here. Southern hospitality. None of that keeping’ it up with Jones’ here yet we have very wealthy folks. I lived in San Jose, CA not So Cal so I can’t compare. SJ is wide spread. It is a place to live and work.

Houston has tourist attractions like NASA and Galveston island.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

A few questions

1. Did anyone mention Willowbrook?

2. What exactly does OP mean by “even Plano/Collin County”? That’s one of the closest that you’ll get to what you’re looking no in USA. Including the lack of trees

[detachable arm]

I don’t think there is an Irvine equivalent in Houston. Maybe Clear Lake or the First Colony part of Sugar Land would be closest but no cigar. Pearland, Willowbrook, Cinco Ranch? No way.

It’s more like some of Houston was built in a similar manner as parts of Anaheim (or Los Angeles area in general), which is why you get some comparisons.

Just my observations from visiting.

[Htown2013]

Every place is unique. Some parts of Houston are more like OC than others. Not all OC is upper class upscale.

The Woodlands, Memorial, and Sugar Land are the three that would be best fit for OP in OPs price range. All have good schools. Houston is in a humid subtropical climate with a lot more rainfall than OC - its climate will lead to more trees. That's just the regional vegetation.

If the Woodlands commute is out, would be Memorial or Sugar Land. Memorial would have most upscale retail comparable to OC. Sugar Land would have newer housing stock than Memorial. Sugar Lands demographics do remind me of part of OCs.

For Sugar Land, be sure to look in the actual city of Sugar Land, which may be ”closer to OC” than places claiming to be Sugar Land outside city limits. 77479 First Colony, Avalon, Telfair, Riverstone.

Biggest issue with Sugar Land is proximity to airport. Memorial and the Woodlands are much better there.

Galleria is NOTHING like OC except for retail. Seems like crime is terrible there.

[sonbi1]

For all the people saying that the Houston area just can’t compare to Orange County, I strongly disagree. I used to live in OC, and honestly places like Cinco Ranch, the Woodlands, and Sugar Land don’t seem any different from OC aside from the difference in natural vegetation. These are all upper middle class suburbs with manicured shopping centers, affluent people, and good schools.

Gosh just drive around most of Orange County. There are plenty of generic strip malls and crappy fast food joints. In fact most of OC is unremarkable and big swaths of it are even a little sketchy. Southern OC is newer and nicer, true, but have you seen the massive master planned communities going up in FBC? What is the difference between Cross Creek Ranch and your typical neighborhood in Irvine?

The OP doesn’t like trees. The OP wants an area that looks exactly like Newport Beach. I would politely suggest to the OP that he or she simply stay in Newport Beach. If you are moving to Texas, then you’re going to get Texas. If you don’t like that, then don’t move here. It’s really that simple.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by sonbi1

For all the people saying that the Houston area just can’t compare to Orange County, I strongly disagree. I used to live in OC, and honestly places like Cinco Ranch, the Woodlands, and Sugar Land don’t seem any different from OC aside from the difference in natural vegetation. These are all upper middle class suburbs with manicured shopping centers, affluent people, and good schools.

Gosh just drive around most of Orange County. There are plenty of generic strip malls and crappy fast food joints. In fact most of OC is unremarkable and big swaths of it are even a little sketchy. Southern OC is newer and nicer, true, but have you seen the massive master planned communities going up in FBC? What is the difference between Cross Creek Ranch and your typical neighborhood in Irvine?

The OP doesn’t like trees. The OP wants an area that looks exactly like Newport Beach. I would politely suggest to the OP that he or she simply stay in Newport Beach. If you are moving to Texas, then you’re going to get Texas. If you don’t like that, then don’t move here. It’s really that simple.

Well the OP is specifically talking about South OC (it's in the title). There are definitely other parts of OC that are less put together, such as Anaheim, Buena Park, etc., but even then since they are cities I feel the planning/build is better even in those cities. There are definitely areas of Houston that resemble parts of South OC, but they're smaller areas and not a large contiguous swath like South OC is (and you can throw in Central OC too ie Irvine and Newport).

[sonbi1]

I grew up in Anaheim. In terms of planning and build, the key difference between LA/OC and Texas (in general) is (1) LA/OC has sidewalks everywhere, and (2) buildings will often abut the sidewalk creating a more urban feel (eg part of a strip mall will be next to the street, whereas in TX the entire structure will be set back from the street).

Otherwise most of OC is not special. Most of OC are mediocre strip malls and huge parking lots with the same chain stores as anywhere.

With regard to “bigger areas that are nice” it’s just a function of sheer size. Fort Bend County is probably the closest analog to OC. There are 800k people in FBC. There are 3.2 million people in OC. When I was a kid in the early 80s in Anaheim, it felt like FBC today. Things were still being built out. A ton of OC was just undeveloped empty land. In 30 years, FBC will be a lot like OC today, guaranteed.

Anyway what the OP wants only exists in pockets here. If the OP wants large contiguous areas that look like OC, then he should stay in OC because - at that scale - it only currently exists in OC. The LA metro area is massive and dwarfs everything in America except for the NYC tri-state area.

[Zenstyle]

Why is no one suggesting Missouri City to the O.P.?

[Houston Area Man]

Originally Posted by Zenstyle

Why is no one suggesting Missouri City to the O.P.?

By Sienna Plantation is nice.

[usc619]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

Well the OP is specifically talking about South OC (it's in the title). There are definitely other parts of OC that are less put together, such as Anaheim, Buena Park, etc., but even then since they are cities I feel the planning/build is better even in those cities. There are definitely areas of Houston that resemble parts of South OC, but they're smaller areas and not a large contiguous swath like South OC is (and you can throw in Central OC too ie Irvine and Newport).

I literally wrote that post off as little penus envy. Funny that I was thinking to myself, the the poster must have lived in Anaheim lol.

Houston has its own style, but it's nothing like OC.