Former Memphian Seeks Texas City Where We Might 'Fit' (Houston: rent, homes)

[movingagain2012]

Hi everyone,

I am from Memphis and have lived in TN for years, then NW Arkansas and Missouri briefly, and have also traveled out west to Idaho for a possible move there. After much soul-searching I discovered I am more of a Southerner than I thought.

My husband and I are both singer-songwriters and work from home doing computer work. We are looking for an area with:

* family-friendly venues to perform basic acoustic sets (like restaurants, coffee shops, fairs, etc.?) - we don't like bars much and just aren't into that scene
* family-friendly karaoke (would be fun for the kids)
* a good recording studio in the area (that would be great)
* a health food store nearby and maybe good farmers markets
* easy gardening and where we could eventually buy some land not too far away for a small hobby farm
* a good homeschooling group to join up with for activities
* a majority of conservatives in the population
* the cheapest and safest area that might have these things (I know, it doesn't exist - but is there anything remotely close?)

Some friends have mentioned Fort Worth but I'm not sure what the music scene is like there. We have obviously heard that 'all musicians should go to Austin' but with the traffic, reading that there is a more liberal population, high rent prices, etc. we are not sure that would be a good fit for us. We had originally thought about moving further west to avoid the humidity but have pretty much given up on that idea since we don't really want to live in the desert.

Are there any areas I should be focusing more on? Is Fort Worth a good choice for us or am I overlooking a city that is a better fit?

Thank you very much!

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

It sounds like you could pick any suburb thats majority white and be fine. I say majority white not because I think youre a racist, but rather because white in Texas are overwhelmingly conservative outside the cities of Austin, Dallas, and Houston (to a lesser degree Fort Worth and San Antonio). This last election, the only counties that voted Blue in Texas were Travis (Austin), Dallas (Dallas), and the counties along the Mexico border. Everything else is red, so you can pretty much take your pick.

Montgomery County north of Houston is (statistically speaking) the most populous conservative suburban county in Texas. If you prefer North Texas, check out a suburb like Keller outside Fort Worth or McKinney outside of Dallas.

If you want to live around conservatives, I would not rule out the Austin area. There are conservative suburbs you can choose from there. Try Round Rock or Georgetown. Should fit your bill just fine.

[movingagain2012]

Originally Posted by peterlemonjello

It sounds like you could pick any suburb thats majority white and be fine. I say majority white not because I think youre a racist, but rather because white in Texas are overwhelmingly conservative outside the cities of Austin, Dallas, and Houston (to a lesser degree Fort Worth and San Antonio). This last election, the only counties that voted Blue in Texas were Travis (Austin), Dallas (Dallas), and the counties along the Mexico border. Everything else is red, so you can pretty much take your pick.

Montgomery County north of Houston is (statistically speaking) the most populous conservative suburban county in Texas. If you prefer North Texas, check out a suburb like Keller outside Fort Worth or McKinney outside of Dallas.

If you want to live around conservatives, I would not rule out the Austin area. There are conservative suburbs you can choose from there. Try Round Rock or Georgetown. Should fit your bill just fine.

Thank you peterlemonjello. I will check out those areas.

[Westerntraveler]

Stay away from Austin if you want a conservative town.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by Westerntraveler

Stay away from Austin if you want a conservative town.

There are plenty of conservative towns outside Austin. Austin is a fun town, I wouldnt write off the whole area just because the city is liberal if there are conservative towns outside it.

[Bobloblawslawblog]

Originally Posted by Westerntraveler

Stay away from Austin if you want a conservative town.

Austin has plenty of conservative suburbs, just like all Texas cities do. There are even plenty of areas in the city-proper that lean further right than most people realize. It's not like Austin is Berkeley or San Francisco. It has a strong liberal core, just like Dallas and Houston do... but IMO Austin's "liberalness" really gets heavily exaggerated in these forums. Like, to the point of absurdity. I lived in one of Austin's most liberal neighborhoods (Hyde Park), and it was no more liberal than many inner-loop neighborhoods in Houston, or central Dallas.

If it's liberal you're looking for, stick to the core areas of any of the three previously mentioned cities. If it's conservative you're looking for, go to the suburbs. Even San Antonio has some pretty liberal areas in it's core... and personally I find SA to be the prettiest and most laid back city in Texas.

[Westerntraveler]

I was not talking about the suburbs...let me clarify.....I was talking about the city of Austin proper.Yall are right in the fact that suburbs of Austin would work.....sorry for the confusion.I should of been more explicit.

[Bobloblawslawblog]

But as I said earlier, even certain parts of Austin-proper are fairly conservative. Once you go North of Anderson Lane or South of Oltorf, it's really just kind of "Any-city, Texas". The city of Austin covers almost 300 square miles. The only truly majority-liberal parts of the city are maybe a third of that area. Perhaps even less than that. That's not even counting the suburbs.

You have to remember, the Texas standard for "liberal" isn't as extreme as it is on the West coast or the Northeast. Austin appears more liberal than it actually is because of it's regional location. Don't get me wrong, Central Austin is indeed very liberal... but if Austin were located in coastal California or the Bos-Wash corridor it would barely be a blip on the liberal radar.

All I know is if the OP is a songwriter-musician, then the Austin area would probably be the place to go, and if the OP would prefer a more conservative setting to live in, there are still plenty of neighborhoods there, both in the city-proper and in the suburbs where he/she would probably feel very comfortable. Just not central Austin.

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by Bobloblawslawblog

But as I said earlier, even certain parts of Austin-proper are fairly conservative. Once you go North of Anderson Lane or South of Oltorf, it's really just kind of "Any-city, Texas". The city of Austin covers almost 300 square miles. The only truly majority-liberal parts of the city are maybe a third of that area. Perhaps even less than that. That's not even counting the suburbs.

You have to remember, the Texas standard for "liberal" isn't as extreme as it is on the West coast or the Northeast. Austin appears more liberal than it actually is because of it's regional location. Don't get me wrong, Central Austin is indeed very liberal... but if Austin were located in coastal California or the Bos-Wash corridor it would barely be a blip on the liberal radar.

All I know is if the OP is a songwriter-musician, then the Austin area would probably be the place to go, and if the OP would prefer a more conservative setting to live in, there are still plenty of neighborhoods there, both in the city-proper and in the suburbs where he/she would probably feel very comfortable. Just not central Austin.

I just don't know much about Austin neighborhoods and their position on the political spectrum.All I know is that Austin is liberal by Texas standards.

[Bobloblawslawblog]

I also just noticed that the OP would like to avoid cities with heavy traffic issues. That pretty much rules out not only Austin, but Houston and DFW as well.

OP, my advice is to look into San Antonio. It's a good sized city with a right-of-center political climate, very close to Austin and it's music scene (only an hour's drive), the lowest COL of Texas' major cities, plenty of health food stores and farmer's markets, and arguably the prettiest of Texas cities.