From California to Texas. Need advice? (Houston, Dallas: apartment, rent, violent crime)

[Sci28]

My family and myself want to relocate from San Jose to San Antonio. We hear that San Antonio is a great family town, is hot all year round, has good attractions and awesome restarants. Can anybody give me feedback on what its like over there good and bad. I live on the eastside of San Jose and have lived in the ghetto for most my life and its not as bad as people make it out. So I wanted to know how bad San Antonio really is? I keep hearing negitive things about San Antonio, Tx thats its worse than San Jose, but San Jose has nothing anymore although its a large city. Can anybody give me real feedback. Thanks any help would be awesome.

[L210]

San Antonio's violent crime is pretty low for its size, but it's not El Paso which has the lowest murder rate of all the large U.S. cities. The eastside inside 410 is crime-ridden and so is the westside. There are pockets of bad neighborhoods everywhere else, but they're easy to avoid. The worst neighborhood I lived in was on the north central side outside of 410, which is generally a nice area. Even though it was a ghetto with crackheads and drug dealers hanging around, my friends and I played around the whole neighborhood without any problems.

[Rasero]

We've lived on the far NW Side for the past 6 years, and have loved living here. If you can, I'd suggest living out near loop 1604. We haven't experienced any crime incidents, just had a car stereo stolen but that was the first year we were here. I go downtown a lot and also near Highway 90 and I-10/I-35, never had any problems.

Living out here on the far NW, you're close to Sea World, Fiesta Texas, La Cantera Shops, the Hill Country, good shopping, good gyms, good schools, etc., etc., etc., and if you're looking to buy a house, now's a great time to buy one because housing values have dropped and there are some fairly nice neighborhoods where you can get a house for $100k - $140k and really low mortgage payments. If you plan on renting though, houses in those same neighborhoods can be pretty high, that's just the way the market is right now.

It is a great city to raise a family, I have 3 small daughters and we love all of the stuff there is to do here for them.

[Soviet]

If you own in a bad neighborhood in San Jose and sell it for a market price, I think you could buy a mansion here in San Antonio. Home prices are worlds apart here.

I concur with everything everyone else has said. As an ex-Californian & ex-New Yorker, San Antonio is great value for the money and has a lot of "outdoorsy" things to do within an hour's or less drive. In addition, it's a bit of a tourist town, giving you plenty of things to do (Sea World, Fiesta Texas, the Riverwalk) You have several small towns an hour away which gives you plenty of exploration potential on the weekends, you're 90 minutes away from Austin, 2 hours from the beach in Corpus Christi, 3 hours from Houston, 5 from Dallas. It's a beautiful place.

My advice, though? If you find a job here, try to live as close to work as possible to minimize time in traffic. However, your own personal comfort & expectations are most important, so do whatever you want! If you come to SA......welcome! Make the most of it & don't speed in the podunk little parasitic enclaves that shouldn't exist!

[markintosh]

Originally Posted by Soviet

don't speed in the podunk little parasitic enclaves that shouldn't exist!

Haha! Repped up!

[en28so]

I have been living here from Los Angeles for almost a year now, and for what I was going to pay for a roach ridden two bedroom apartment back over there, I'm going to get a 1556 sq ft brand new home. So I don't miss California one bit. The city is nice and has more good than bad things. It gets really hot in the summer. I came in June of last year, and boy it was not fun. I would suggest trying out a little vacation here during the summer so that you can see what it's like. I still like SA overall.

[majormadmax]

Originally Posted by Soviet

...don't speed in the podunk little parasitic enclaves that shouldn't exist!

Just keep in mind those "podunk little parasitic enclaves" (Leon Valley, Alamo Heights, Hill Country Village, Castle Hills, Terrell Hills, Balcones Heights, etc) were (and still are) independent municipalities that were engulfed by SA's growing borders.

They became incorporated to avoid being annexed by the city...

[Xymox]

I would say it is a great family town. It's only hot half the year though. In the winter it can get surprisingly cold (for a Californian, at least a Southern Californian such as myself), though overall it is very mild. And I still prefer winter over the summer; I don't mind the cold (such as it is) at all.

In my experience many Californians tend to dump on Texas for no good reason at all. I've had friends who have never been to Texas who nonetheless hated it. Sometimes it's political, or cultural, or maybe they just want to reassure themselves that they are making the right decision in staying in overpriced, overtaxed, traffic-clogged California.

I prefer to live closer in rather than in the far suburbs/exurbs. When I first moved here I was told the best place to live in the North Central area. I'm sure you will get some disagreement, but it's probably a safe bet. If possible, I would rent before buying so you can make sure you are in the area you want to be. Personally I like the parasitic enclaves and I'm glad they exist. But yes, don't speed in them.

[Sci28]

Thank you guys so much for the info. It really did help me out alot. My mother was a Texan and I miss Texas but haven't been there in years, so it really puts my mind at ease. Thanks a bunch and I hope everyone had a great Easter. =)

[RJMorris82]

Hi,

I've been living in San Antonio now for about 5 years after relocating here from the Los Angeles area in 2007. It's a bit different but overall I love it. Just do your research and you should be able to avoid the trouble spots. San Antonio is like any major city, you have your areas of problems, just stay north of 410 and you should not have too big of issues. Also, to help avoid CA traffic try to find a spot inside 1604 but outside 410, that will make sense if you look at a map of the city. There are tons of websites that will give you crime statistics based on zip codes and you can also research for good school areas. One of the really cool things of San Antonio is you have places like Austin that is only an 70 miles away if you start craving some CA feel. But the biggest thing that I love about this city is how much nicer everyone is, you can drive around and random people will just wave hi, to just say hi, they don't want anything, it's bizarre when you are coming from CA where the only hand gesture you get from strangers is the single digit hand gesture.