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My husband is currently in HVAC school, and will be done at the end of October. We will be moving to Texas, because he wants to be close to his mom. Unfortunatly, she lives in San Antonio. I have tried and tried to find a good neighborhood within our price range ($800/month rent for a 3 bed) to no avail. I stumbled across the city of San Marcos, and I have fallen in love. It is green, it has a college, and affordable apartments. Also, according to their chamber of commerce website, it is in the top 10 cities to raise kids in 2010 to boot.
So, I guess my questions are, have you been there? What is it like? And would my husband have a hard time finding a job in the HVAC field, fresh out of school?
You didn't say where you're moving from, up north, back east?
San Marcos is an okay town. There used to be a happening music scene and a lot of great musicians as it's close to Austin - not sure about now. Wimberley, the next town over, is a scenic resort town with shops and restaurants and the Blanco River for fishing and tubing. Or, Canyon Lake and the Devil's Backbone for more outdoor recreation. Look for the bluebonnets in spring and mild winters with frost on the car in the morning and afternoons warm enough to go swimming.
You probably don't want to live near the train tracks in San Marcos the freight trains take forever to pass. It's not a bad drive into Austin, by TX distance standards, and Austin has everything. People in the area are very open and friendly, it's easy to make friends, but Bible Belt conservative.
The whole area must be great for HVAC people. In the summer the temps rise to 104 or 105 every afternoon and the humidity off the Gulf of Mexico is truly oppressive. We used to go from our house in Wimberley to San Marcos a lot visiting friends and were always looking for the temperature on the bank's digital clock/thermometer.
Im not sure about the HVAC jobs, I just moved to San Marcos a month ago, it is a cute small city, its green and the older areas are very nice and have a certain charm about them. Its a major college town. People hang out at the river, its really cool and you are located between Austin and San Antonio.
the only thing I dont like about San Marcos is the interstate runs through here and you got all kinds of big box stores and chain restaurnats, hardly any mom and pop restaurants. To me, the rent is a little expensive for being TX. An ad in the paper one day said that college students pay top dollar for rent so that gives you an idea, but it all depends on where you are coming from. Housing looks to be cheap though.
I love San Marcos. I got my undergrad there and am in a master's program there as well.
If you can put up with the mass amounts of younger people, then you'll do ok. Kyle is just a few miles north and might be better suited for the family. Depends on what you want.
And with a population of 52,927, I doubt many people in this part of the forum would want to classify San Marcos as a small town.
That's the truth. San Marcos is okay, but that area is growing by leaps and bounds. It's right off of Interstate 35 with a huge outlet mall nearby. Of course, coming from OC, it may suit you well. There are, of course, smaller towns in the vicinity. It's pretty, but it's hot and humid, which pretty much describes most of Texas especially from late April to late October.
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