Returned trip from SA (Houston, Dallas: rental car, fit in, real estate)

[felina]

Some of you already know that I went to SA to check it out. I put 1500miles on our Ford focus rental car in 8 days. Went to Austin, Houston and SA surrounding areas.

Houston where my wifes sister lives is a definate no go. Many problems there from the influx of people from Katrina. My wifes sister husband is a parole officer and he told me alot of stuff that is no that good. Plus the traffic was horrific and humidity although low because of a cool front.

Austin was nice. Liked the hills country round canyon lake area. Rental leasing real estate for my buisness was higher than I expected but did find a few reasonable places and one was in Alamo plaza in the NW area off 410w.

Housing was very reasonable and in fact great! Visited many new home divisions. But not too keen on the cookie cutter designs where you can reach and touch your neighbor. Lots averaged 50' x120'.

Overall traffic was good and the road system is better then average for a large city population 1.2 million(7th largest).

Riverwalk was nice. The city was a but overwheming for my wife and was scared to drive. We saw a accident where a car went thru a stop sign or did not come to a complete stop and ran into a 18 wheeler. Spun the car around . SA finally had rain and may of contributed to the accident. Many do not know how to drive properly in rainy weather!

We have come to the conclusion that SA is not the right place for us. We still plan on visiting El Paso in December. Loved the nighttime/morning weather. When we arrived back in NH at 11pm it was about 47 deg But the day hit 65-70 not bad.

Humidity was normal too me lower then normal because a cold front came in last week. But did start to creep up. There is so much new devolements going up. Especially north side of 1604. Good vacation evan tho I was busy.

[210]

Why did you find SA wasn't for you?

[Susyq25]

i'm from el paso and my family still lives there, so i'm curious as to why you didn't like about SA. Some people think SA is just a bigger EP.

[210]

SA isn't a bigger EP.

SA is its own city with a bit of everything. Not to be mean, but El Paso is small border city with a job market that isn't doing much.

I'm sorry, but I found that an insult. Maybe you meant it in a different way.

[dallastexan]

I've always thought SA was just a big ELP, but then I'm from Dallas.

[210]

How exactly is it a big El Paso? I really need that explained to me.

And was the "I'm from Dallas" comment supposed to be patronizing?

Actually, SA is a sort of smaller Houston-Dallas hybrid except with a lot more history and culture. There's no other city in Texas that has the same amount of culture and history as San Antonio.

[neddy]

I understand how someone might not fit in here if the town is to big,not the right job market etc but the rest of yall (210 excluded! LOL) are dead wrong to say that SA is just a bigger El Paso. Each city has its own charm to say that we are alike is really offbase. El Paso is just smaller and maybe that is what they are looking for. Yeah, it is next to a big city, but that big city is across the border in another country. Good luck in your search. Glad I moved from Dallas! Now I can see what everyone means about some of the people in Dallas when describing them!

[felina]

Its not that we did not like SA but as a small buisness self-employed man the few nice rental spots I found was a tad too high. There was over a full page of shops in the yellow pages of the kind of work I do(TV, electronic service).

I visited a few of them and they told me the same thing slowing buisness right now. A few places I liked had 6 shops in the neart area. I am not willing to take a chance.

I also looked at having a small gym or fitness training studio. 4,000 sf cost about $9000 a month in a nice small plaza. The cheapest was a 900sf for $1,200 a month. Too small for any type of my buisness. But I did find a great place on rte 306 in canyon city near the lake. small center and very reasonable $1200 for 1850 sf in nice small plaza with good parking but was just rented out. But alot of my buisness would be father away which was a drawback.

My wife was a bit "overwhelmed" by the sheer size of the city. We currently live in a town that has a population of 28,000. Plus, I am allergic to mold. Couple this with pollen, himidity and I may get sick. Like I was for 5 months this spring. Dry Coughing. Not sure if I will get like this every year because the pollen count was a tad high here this early year. And SA has a moderate to high mold count which I was surprised as I read in the paper and tv news.

So for us SA is not right evan tho we may of liked it. Real estate was the biggest plus and hard for us to say no after all the homes we fell in love with. Strangley, when I asked people who live there about the weather 90% said they hate it! Of course all year had a drought and higher then normal temps.The recent rain was a relief to the area as a whole.

So nothing agaisnt SA just not for us.

[Susyq25]

Originally Posted by 210

Not to be mean, but El Paso is small border city with a job market that isn't doing much..

You're right it's a small city with no real job market & that's why I don't move back. Some of us jokingly (and not so jokingly) say that EP is part of Mexico not TX.

Originally Posted by 210

I'm sorry, but I found that an insult. Maybe you meant it in a different way.

I'm not really sure why you were insulted, i certainly didn't mean to offend anyone.

i'll explain my comment. when i asked a couple of people about SA they said "it reminds me of el paso" " it's kind of like a big EP". Being from EP myself the first thing that came to my mind was size, especially bc his wife was "overwhelmed".

[Sampaguita]

Sorry that SA isn't going to work out for you & your family afterall. Good luck in your search!