Odessa/Midland area? Comments Please! (Austin, Fort Worth: real estate, crime, high school)

[technoid]

On Yahoo Real Estate it looks like a good area, and my smallish son is crazy for football. Please give any honest opinions or thoughts. I move/retire this June with a son just entering high school from Riverside in southern CA. Are there Target/Walmart & regular stores nearby etc? What do you like & dislike about the area? HELLLLLLP!?

[cyclefrk]

Honestly, there is absolutely nothing in that area. I would recommend the Austin area. Football, trees, live music, good food, it's all there.

[bluevil01]

I would have to agree... very populated area - but a "ghost town". I don't know too much about Midland - but Odessa...I grew up there and still have family there. It is desert and oil. It can be REALLY smelly. And as far as the high school...not a place I would put my kids..gangs,drugs,and metal detecters...unless you come from a place like new york city lol- Texas is beautiful in the east!

[lifertexan]

Do NOT move to the Midland/Odessa area without doing a thorough investigation into it.I live a couple of hours from there and NOTHING could get me to live there.Even most people who live in that area will tell you it is not a great place to live.Crime is fairly high compared to most of the rest of Texas except the big metro areas.ALL of Texas is crazy about football,so any town in Texas will fill that bill.Let me know what you are looking for and I will try to help.

[marfacordmgr]

I agree - don't move to Odessalation. If you have to be in that particular area, Midland is a much nicer town. I go there shopping occasionaly and there are plenty of stores. There doesn't seem to be as much crime in Midland. good luck........

[Mark S.]

If you do end up in the Odessa area, don't drink the water. It tastes like pocket change. Really old pocket change.

[caprockvista]

Tried to answer yesterday, but server was too busy.

As a 63 year resident of Odessa and Ector County, may I say that all areas of the county are not alike

Some places in the country are not full of crime....and some have very good water.. from our wells ....I do not live in town so couldn't comment on that.

Living expenses are cheaper in this area than in many other metropolitan areas.....

We are only about 30 minutes drive from the start of the mesa country to the south and the Trans Pecos if you enjoy different scenery from the Plains....

The Davis Mountains are only 3 hours away and you couldn't ask for a more beautiful day drive.....

caprockvista

[BobTex]

Are you looking for a place for your son to PLAY football? If so I'd look for a small school. Highschool football in Texas is king and arguably the best in the nation. Southlake Carroll has had the #1 HS football team in the nation for the last 2 years. They are in the Fort Worth area. I can't speak to anything about the Odessa area except they play awesome HS football there and oil powers the area. I live in East Texas 700 miles away.

Bob

[Been Lots of Places]

Once Upon A Time it was a nice place to raise a family, but compared to anywhere else it rates a distant 2nd if any other city is considered and decreases in value proportional to the number of cities considered.

If you wish to "get to the top" it is a good place as those at the top would have problems competing anywhere else.

No beauty and too far from real culture and life. It would not even be a good place to put someone in the “witness protection program.”

[Cowboybootnut]

I have several friends that live in Midland, and they love it. I was there in Feb 2006, and enjoyed my time there. It has about everything you could want in a mid-size town.

However, if there is ever another oil bust like in the mid-1980s, look out. It is way too dependant on the price of oil.