Does Houston meet my criteria for a place to live? (Galveston: real estate, property taxes)

[DCNative]

Here's my idea of a city that I would want to live in:

Medium-XLarge city with the following:

- Some culture and diversity
- Shopping/restaurant/bar strips where young people like go out and about
- Friendly, open-minded, helpful, mellow, and laid-back people
- Good place for a single male to find women for dates/relationships
- Large numbers of educated and affluent young people
- People who care about their health, exercise, and exercise good hygiene
- Lots of things to do for young/single people (parks, dance scenes, sports bars, gym/sport activity areas such as golf, tennis, swimming, etc)
- Tolerant of different races and religions, progressive without smug and elitist attitudes
- Political climate centering on the moderate
- Affordable cost of living for the young and single
- Affordable real estate for single income earners
- Low state income or sales tax
- Manageable property taxes
- Growth opportunities for environmentally-conscious businesses
- Employment opportunities containing sufficient upside
- Nearby beach (Is Galveston a good beach?)

Discuss?

[DeLaSalle]

Originally Posted by DCNative

Here's my idea of a city that I would want to live in:

Medium-XLarge city with the following:

- Some culture and diversity
- Shopping/restaurant/bar strips where young people like go out and about
- Friendly, open-minded, helpful, mellow, and laid-back people
- Good place for a single male to find women for dates/relationships
- Large numbers of educated and affluent young people
- People who care about their health, exercise, and exercise good hygiene
- Lots of things to do for young/single people (parks, dance scenes, sports bars, gym/sport activity areas such as golf, tennis, swimming, etc)
- Tolerant of different races and religions, progressive without smug and elitist attitudes
- Political climate centering on the moderate
- Affordable cost of living for the young and single
- Affordable real estate for single income earners
- Low state income or sales tax
- Manageable property taxes
- Growth opportunities for environmentally-conscious businesses
- Employment opportunities containing sufficient upside
- Nearby beach (Is Galveston a good beach?)

Discuss?

Sorry,
But That list seems like "Dreamland",
If you ever find a city like that please let us know...

[DCNative]

Originally Posted by DeLaSalle

Sorry,
But That list seems like "Dreamland",
If you ever find a city like that please let us know...

It doesn't have to meet every single one of my requirements. For example, if I like the culture, diversity, and employment opportunities, then I can live with the sprawl and traffic to go with it. I'd like to know what sort of trade-offs there are associated with each city that I'm looking at.

[irwin]

Basically this is going to be your trade off:

You are going to trade a "real" city feeling, with walkable neighborhoods, good public transit, and a more cosmopolitan feel FOR a cheaper cost of living and better winter weather.

It's a trade off, but DC and Houston are VERY different.

[RGV]

- Some culture and diversity - Yes.
- Shopping/restaurant/bar strips where young people like go out and about - Yes
- Friendly, open-minded, helpful, mellow, and laid-back people - Yes
- Good place for a single male to find women for dates/relationships - Yes
- Large numbers of educated and affluent young people - Yes
- People who care about their health, exercise, and exercise good hygiene - Maybe
- Lots of things to do for young/single people (parks, dance scenes, sports bars, gym/sport activity areas such as golf, tennis, swimming, etc) - Yes
- Tolerant of different races and religions, progressive without smug and elitist attitudes - Yes
- Political climate centering on the moderate - Yes
- Affordable cost of living for the young and single - definately Yes
- Affordable real estate for single income earners - definately Yes
- Low state income or sales tax - definately Yes
- Manageable property taxes - Maybe
- Growth opportunities for environmentally-conscious businesses - definately yes
- Employment opportunities containing sufficient upside - definately yes
- Nearby beach (Is Galveston a good beach?) - beach nearby, it's OK.

[JTex]

Most of the major metro areas in Tx. have become traffic nightmares(I imagine not nearly as bad as Cali but pretty crappy way to spend you time commuting to work.Oh make sure your car is an automatic or you'll end up ripping the stick out of the floor board from frustration.

They don't have one project finished before they start the next on at the same location. I'm lucky enough to live in rural NE Tx. now.
JT

[Guerilla]

Originally Posted by RGV

- Some culture and diversity - Yes.
- Shopping/restaurant/bar strips where young people like go out and about - Yes
- Friendly, open-minded, helpful, mellow, and laid-back people - Yes
- Good place for a single male to find women for dates/relationships - Yes
- Large numbers of educated and affluent young people - Yes
- People who care about their health, exercise, and exercise good hygiene - Maybe
- Lots of things to do for young/single people (parks, dance scenes, sports bars, gym/sport activity areas such as golf, tennis, swimming, etc) - Yes
- Tolerant of different races and religions, progressive without smug and elitist attitudes - Yes
- Political climate centering on the moderate - Yes
- Affordable cost of living for the young and single - definately Yes
- Affordable real estate for single income earners - definately Yes
- Low state income or sales tax - definately Yes
- Manageable property taxes - Maybe
- Growth opportunities for environmentally-conscious businesses - definately yes
- Employment opportunities containing sufficient upside - definately yes
- Nearby beach (Is Galveston a good beach?) - beach nearby, it's OK.

This is accurate.

[BearBranch]

This is spot on

[Wahine]

Originally Posted by DCNative

Here's my idea of a city that I would want to live in:

Medium-XLarge city with the following:

- Some culture and diversity
- Shopping/restaurant/bar strips where young people like go out and about
- Friendly, open-minded, helpful, mellow, and laid-back people
- Good place for a single male to find women for dates/relationships
- Large numbers of educated and affluent young people
- People who care about their health, exercise, and exercise good hygiene
- Lots of things to do for young/single people (parks, dance scenes, sports bars, gym/sport activity areas such as golf, tennis, swimming, etc)
- Tolerant of different races and religions, progressive without smug and elitist attitudes
- Political climate centering on the moderate
- Affordable cost of living for the young and single
- Affordable real estate for single income earners
- Low state income or sales tax
- Manageable property taxes
- Growth opportunities for environmentally-conscious businesses
- Employment opportunities containing sufficient upside
- Nearby beach (Is Galveston a good beach?)

Discuss?

I would say generally, you might agree that Houston has most of these things. It is a moderate and affordable place with lots to do. Property taxes? Well, the biggie, as we started looking to buy, was actually educational taxes. To get some of those things, though, you may have some tradeoffs. The areas close to "swingles" and more activities, nightclubs etc. are generally in the loop and a little higher in cost. Also, I agree with Irwin's take. Houston is very different from an East Coast city because of the emphasis on driving, lack of public transit, sidewalks in some neighborhoods. But it's still cosmpolitan - great museums, and a real diversity of restaurants.

As far as the beach, I like Galveston a lot. It's on the silty side, and underrated.

[hamiltonpl]

I think Houston meets all of those criteria. My only concern would be Galveston. The beach is not great. The water is brown. There are shells and stuff all along the beach (except for Jamaica Beach, that's pretty nice). Otherwise, the City of Galveston is pretty much a blue collar town that attracts blue collar vacationers.

If that's your cup of tea -- SIP IT.