Best city in Texas for quality of Life? (Houston, Dallas: real estate, homes)

[mixxalot]

I am curious to find out which major area in Texas: Austin, Dallas, San Antonio or Houston have the best quality of life, lowest pollution/traffic, nicest people and best place for single professionals to live as well as business market for upward mobile professionals? I live in southern California and cannot afford a home here so have considered Texas due to much lower real estate prices.

[AK123]

All but San Antonio have terrible traffic. Austin, and certain neighborhoods in Houston (like Midtown and Montrose) are good for single professionals. Everyone I've known in Houston has been able to advance in their careers quickly and do very well, in Austin it's been harder. Not sure about San Antonio and Dallas in that respect.

[RandylovesFrisco]

Depends on what you do..Dallas is a great market to live in, play in, work in...then again that is my opinion...check out the area's first hand..visit...spend some time there, narrow it down, and don't make a long term mistake...

[mixxalot]

I work in technology for a consulting firm. Home office located in California but I either travel or work remote. Cost of housing is insane in California and while I love the weather, I want a home and decent quality of life for a single 30's guy. Now I've been to Dallas and it was ok but too much like Los Angeles with nasty traffic. Houston has wicked humidity, hurricanes and giant size bugs.

How does San Antonio compare to Austin for nightlife and careers in technology? I love my current job just need to keep focused on good city for meeting like minded professionals and good nightlife and clean city. Pollution is bad in Dallas/Ft Worth.

[Trainwreck20]

Pollution is bad in all the metro areas, some worse than others. Houston and Dallas have been 'nonattainment' for standards for some years, SA will join the 'official' bad air group next year, Austin may take another two or three years to become 'nonattainment.

Of course, the worst pollution areas are localized, so all the metros have better an worse areas. All the metro areas have bad traffic, but if you are not in rush hour traffic, SA and Austin are not really bad, or even Dallas for that matter. Houston has more consistent all-day traffic, but also has the best developed highway system, probably.

Bugs/Texas are synonomous.

[okayokay]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

I work in technology for a consulting firm. Home office located in California but I either travel or work remote. Cost of housing is insane in California and while I love the weather, I want a home and decent quality of life for a single 30's guy. Now I've been to Dallas and it was ok but too much like Los Angeles with nasty traffic. Houston has wicked humidity, hurricanes and giant size bugs.

How does San Antonio compare to Austin for nightlife and careers in technology? I love my current job just need to keep focused on good city for meeting like minded professionals and good nightlife and clean city. Pollution is bad in Dallas/Ft Worth.

(Is everybody having the "DATABASE ERROR" screen every time??? Or is just me?)

I live in Austin, I'm 27. Well, there's a lot of nightlife down here. The thing is, UT is in Austin so most of the people in the bars are people who go to university, in their early 20's, and drink a lot and it gets crazy. But then, there are a few bars for people my age, your age. It is cool, except I miss having to dress up to go out, most people here just put on some flip flops and go. Cons: All nightlife is downtown. Most working people live north, or south and there's no nightlife at all around there.

[AK123]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

I work in technology for a consulting firm. Home office located in California but I either travel or work remote. Cost of housing is insane in California and while I love the weather, I want a home and decent quality of life for a single 30's guy. Now I've been to Dallas and it was ok but too much like Los Angeles with nasty traffic. Houston has wicked humidity, hurricanes and giant size bugs.

How does San Antonio compare to Austin for nightlife and careers in technology? I love my current job just need to keep focused on good city for meeting like minded professionals and good nightlife and clean city. Pollution is bad in Dallas/Ft Worth.

Houston hasn't had a real hurricane in a very long time. Since the 80's I think. And you'll be dealing with bugs and other creatures everywhere in Texas. Sounds like Houston and Dallas are already out for you, so why did you ask?

San Antonio probably has less nightlife and tech jobs than Austin. But much of the nightlife in Austin is geared toward the college scene.

[mixxalot]

Well based thus far it probably sounds like Austin fits my lifestyle as I plan to go back for my MBA program eventually and plenty of good universities and nightlife there. Thanks y'all for the tips. I would have to become a cowboy and drive a cadillac with the horns or pickup truck (lol) if I move to Texas. I do like good steak so thats a plus.

[Willys]

Sorry dude, but you can't do the cadillac with horns unless you're a bonifide millionaire and have relatives from the Republic... Not even with a UT MBA, 'specially being from kali4neeya.

However, if you want a good steak, pull out yer google map and find San Angelo (think out back). Look about half way between San Angelo and Ballinger (slightly northeast) and you'll find a spot called Lowake. Ya better be hungry.

[imaterry78259]

In fact San Antonio has a better nightlife than Austin and the neighborhood are better. They have a neighborhood called Jefferson/LA Heights is an upcoming area that features 1920 to 1950 style LA type stucco homes. San Antonio is the fastest growing city in Texas and maybe third in the country. I have a friend who is a recruiter and he said that he wish he could find people for finance and tech jobs. Since Austin and SA city limits are only about 45 miles from each other you can dip between the two. Houston is the best overall city in Texas