Houston, Knoxville, or Wilmington?

[Kitties of Domination]

Wilmington is a very nice place, however.

[jason1]

My folks lived in Houston for about 8 years. It has good and bad. Overall they said they would never move back. I visited Houston many times to see them. What I gathered when I was there:

Can be clicky. Many people have been there for a long time and much of the money that is there is old money.

Many parts are on the dirty side. The are nice parts too but over all not the highest quality city I have seen. Traffic can get bad and I hate the stupid feeder roads Texas uses on each side of the highway.

Summers absolutely suck. It is very humid and bugs are everywhere. However the winters are very mild and you can play golf all season.

Forget ever making money in real estate there. My parents never made a dime on both of the homes they had there. I had a client that owned a condo in downtown Houston for 20 years and just now is back to even from what he paid.

I have friends that live there and they said there are many Katrina transplants in some areas and the schools have really paid a price for it. I am glad Houston took them in but lets be honest it has caused a problem.

Pay can be low but also may be high depending on industry.

My Dad had many employee transplants from other areas of the country and he said he had a problem with turnover as soon as another position opened up somewhere else they took it and he had to find someone else. It really made his life tough I think thats what caused him to retire.

I have never seen the Houston metro area make any of the top places to live lists. Something to consider.

I do not know Wilmington so I will not comment on it.

Knoxville I have been to it once and have friends in Tennessee and they love it. It is one of the areas we are considering for a possible move also. From what I have seen and heard I think the above posts are pretty accurate about Knoxville.

Good luck hope this helps.

[piedmont]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I wonder how long it takes to get to the Outer Banks from Knoxville?

Well, from west Knox, I can get to our old place in central NC in 5.5 hrs. From there, it was about 5.5 hours to Hatteras Island/Rodanthe area. Nags Head would be closer, more like 5 hours. So probably about 10-11 hours from Knoxville.

Route 64 is now 4 lane much of the way from Raleigh to eastern NC, so it is a lot quicker than it used to be (used to take 8 hours from the Triangle area of NC to OBX).

[pananajack]

. And high unemplyment rate to boot

Originally Posted by nitneylion

I live in Wilmington and will say that the traffic is getting worse but nothing like a large city. I moved here 18 years ago from Cincinnati and Wilmington has grown a lot since that time.

Hurricanes? We have had about 5 or 6 but nothing bad. I left for the first few but remained for the last two, didn't even lose power.

The temperature is helped in the Winter and Summer by the effects of the ocean..... not as hot nor as cold as it is further inland. Snow, what is that?, you can go to the mountains.

Teachers are not as well paid as they are in the North but that is the trend in all of the South.

Housing is becoming more expensive because Wilmington is considered a desirable area and it is.


Consider it.....