Considering Houston... (Sugar Land, The Woodlands, Pearland: rental, condo, credit card)

[giz2000]

I am being recruited for a position with a non-profit (teaching). One of the places I am considering for placement would be Houston. How would you compare it to Miami? Weather, traffic, housing (we'll be renting for a few years), and especially schools districts (I have a son entering HS next fall). If I get this job, we'll be moving over the summer. I know Houston is huge, but I just want to get an overall picture. Here are some facts for comparison (in case you haven't been here):

Weather: hot, sticky, muggy most of the year...we get about 1 week total of temps below 70.

Traffic: BAD....all...the...time.

Housing: Rents are pretty high here. Average 2/2 rental house/townhouse/apt condo is $1,200; 3+ bedrooms go up to $2K/month

Utilities: FPL has a monopoly here so you pay what they want you to pay, like it or not. Average cooling bill in the summer for an 1100 sq ft house: $400.

School - you have your good and bad, like everywhere else. The "good" schools are usually in the suburbs, although there are some really top notch high schools near downtown.

Thanks for all your input!

[XodoX]

Originally Posted by giz2000

I am being recruited for a position with a non-profit (teaching). One of the places I am considering for placement would be Houston. How would you compare it to Miami? Weather, traffic, housing (we'll be renting for a few years), and especially schools districts (I have a son entering HS next fall). If I get this job, we'll be moving over the summer. I know Houston is huge, but I just want to get an overall picture. Here are some facts for comparison (in case you haven't been here):

Weather: hot, sticky, muggy most of the year...we get about 1 week total of temps below 70.

Traffic: BAD....all...the...time.

Housing: Rents are pretty high here. Average 2/2 rental house/townhouse/apt condo is $1,200; 3+ bedrooms go up to $2K/month

Utilities: FPL has a monopoly here so you pay what they want you to pay, like it or not. Average cooling bill in the summer for an 1100 sq ft house: $400.

School - you have your good and bad, like everywhere else. The "good" schools are usually in the suburbs, although there are some really top notch high schools near downtown.

Thanks for all your input!

1. Same here

2. Depends on, but a decent house it probably at least 1700 a month. I've looked into that before. Don't remember seeing anything good for 1200. But I'm picky

3. Would be better if you could provide the price per KWH. I'm currently paying 9.8 cents.

4. Same here.

[Malvie]

Originally Posted by giz2000

I am being recruited for a position with a non-profit (teaching). One of the places I am considering for placement would be Houston. How would you compare it to Miami? Weather, traffic, housing (we'll be renting for a few years), and especially schools districts (I have a son entering HS next fall). If I get this job, we'll be moving over the summer. I know Houston is huge, but I just want to get an overall picture. Here are some facts for comparison (in case you haven't been here):

Weather: hot, sticky, muggy most of the year...we get about 1 week total of temps below 70.

Traffic: BAD....all...the...time.

Housing: Rents are pretty high here. Average 2/2 rental house/townhouse/apt condo is $1,200; 3+ bedrooms go up to $2K/month

Utilities: FPL has a monopoly here so you pay what they want you to pay, like it or not. Average cooling bill in the summer for an 1100 sq ft house: $400.

School - you have your good and bad, like everywhere else. The "good" schools are usually in the suburbs, although there are some really top notch high schools near downtown.

Thanks for all your input!

Like anywhere else, it is what you make it.

I would think (other than being a few degrees cooler in the winter) the weather would be very equivalent. Long, hot, sticky summers, cool, rainy winters (the old ladies break out the fur coats for church when the temps hit 50 in Houston). "Winter" here is from December through February; it might make 32 degrees a few nights in January (or might not). About every 10 years we get a dusting (less than an inch) of snow and the city goes berserk (imagine snow in Miami, you get the picture). Usually, Houstonians do their Christmas shopping in shorts.

Right now, as I write this, it's a very nice 66 degrees and bright sunshine. We'll have some 40 degrees and raining days in January, but they don't last long and then you'll kick back up to 50-70 degrees and sunny. Summer---well, ours this year went from April to October, and was hotter than I ever remember it here. Or maybe I'm just older. No, it really was hotter.

I think those rental rates are about the same, but note that it varies so widely from area to area---just like Miami, actually. I mean, you can get a 2500 4-3-2 house in West Houston (HISD) for $2k (mine). Depends on where you're going to be working as to where you'll want to look; driving, traffic are serious things here and you'll want to live as close to work as possible. I have a friend who lives in Conroe and commutes to Beltway 8/Westheimer every day. I would kill myself first. Actually, I'd just suck it up and move closer to work. You wouldn't want to live in West Palm Beach and commute to Homestead, would you? Same kind of deal.

HISD is spotty, some good schools, some bad. The big suburbs for schools appear to be Sugar Land, Katy, The Woodlands, Pearland, and Clear Lake/Webster. You'd just really need to know where you were working.

Utilities: Texas is deregulated and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. BEWARE of some of the deals; you have to pay by credit card, or if you're a minute late they hike you to the "full" rate; when your contract is up you have to switch on the correct date, etc. Also, some have low per Kwh rates but impose a "Service Fee", which may have the effect of raising your per kwh charge...

My 2,500 4-3-2 house, built in 1978 (attic re-insulated 2005), runs about $400 in the summer; my neighbor's 2-story, same era, is $700 (he has no attic). I use Reliant (the kinda-sorta legacy company of the original Houston Lighting and Power); I don't have a very good kwh rate (0.14) but have no service fees, and have levellized billing---my actual BILL runs around $220 a month; levellized throughout the year.

Hope that helps!

[giz2000]

Thanks so much for the quick replies! FPL charges $0.12 per KWH...and there are a ton of service fees, taxes, blah blah blah...plus their customer service is abysmal, but we don't have any other choice.

[DrLizardo]

Originally Posted by giz2000

Thanks so much for the quick replies! FPL charges $0.12 per KWH...and there are a ton of service fees, taxes, blah blah blah...plus their customer service is abysmal, but we don't have any other choice.

While there are some shady electrical deals, if you shop wisely you can do pretty good. I switched at the beginning of the Summer and am paying 0.095 per KWH for one year. If you go month to month you can get deals as good as 0.085 at the moment.

As for traffic, I had some temporary assignments in Miami over the years that involved a lot of driving, and I have always been glad to get back to Houston traffic.

[irishlover]

We definitely get more cooler weather than Miami....we are at least 400 miles further north and positioned more toward the central plains where fronts pass through starting in November through April. Houston has average low temps in Jan in the low 40s...Miami is in the mid-upper 50s.

Summers are hot in either place...Houston probably feels hotter due to its further proximity to the "cooling" effects of the GOM.

[cheryjohns]

Averge small house rental is a 3 bedroom. It's important to know job location in order to give you an average rent.