Need imput on where to move in Texas (San Antonio, Austin: live in, price)

[Stasco]

I'm from Bryan/College Station, and I highly recommend you look into moving here. It's right in the middle of Houston, Austin, and DFW, and no more than a 3 hour drive from any of them. It's a fairly conservative Christian area - some people will tell you too much so. The population of the two cities (they share a border - it's practically one city) and surrounding area is around 160,000, although that fluctuates depending on when the Texas A&M students are in town. The University has about 40,000 enrolled students, so that can make a big difference. Also, if you want to avoid noisy student neighbors and be closer to the hispanic population, northern Bryan is a great place to go. Many people will tell you that Bryan is "ghetto" or "too dangerous" or that the school system is bad, but as a white upper middle income man who has lived here all my life and gone through Bryan schools, I can tell you that I have never felt in danger. Almost all of the violent crime (and there's not much) takes place between two criminals, not against unsuspecting innocent people.

It does get pretty humid here in the summer time, so if you want a place that will be dry year round, I would really recommend the Texas Hill Country region around San Antonio (but not in San Antonio - it's a huge city and overpopulated in my opinion.) I really like Uvalde, Texas.

Just remember that this is a big state and climate and culture vary widely from region to region.

[changeofpace]

We spent 6 weeks last year investigating every aspect of Corpus (crime, taxes, cost of utilities, cost of homes, entertainment, shopping, etc, etc). We built our home the end of last year and moved in Jan 2nd of this year. It has only been 3 weeks, but so far we love everything about Corpus and the people have been so welcoming and the neighbors have been so helpful. The property taxes, car and home insurance and groceries are less than what we paid in Minnesota. I'll keep everyone posted on the good and bad as we go.

[NOTAM]

yeah. i am a healthcare professional too-Emergency Room Registered Nurse. those hospitals down in South Texas sure begged-i was wined and dined-flown down there all expenses paid, hotel/rental car/airfare...woo'ed with a big hefty sign on bonus and big salary. yeah. i sold my soul. after no more than just a few weeks, i KNEW i had made a big mistake, and got out of there in one year alive. (oh and i am a Texan and have lived in Texas most of my life and LOVE TEXAS)...but i will NEVER EVER EVER make that mistake again. South Texas might be for some, but it sure wasnt for me. I really have to say that if you are a caucasian or "anglo" as they call it down there, you need to take caution-be sure that you make a trip down there and spend a good week or two there. go to the WALMART, spend time walking around. go to the grocery store, spend time observing, walking around. if you feel comfortable, then ok. but had i done those simple things, instead of just been rushed from one interview to the next with my free rental car, having no time to do anything else but retire to my hotel room at the end of the day, i would have known. they were pretty dang slick to keep my itinerary that busy, so in hopes that i wouldnt really see what the area and culture were like.
i would have rather spent a year in the sandbox in Iraq. at least there i would have had the moral support of my fellow battle buddies. in South Texas, i was alone and had no one to count on. i was ostracized. i might have well been in solitary confinment/administrative segregation at a TDCJ prison unit!
i lost my soul and spirit in the year that i was there. i came there a bubbly happy go lucky single female. i left with an empty soul. now that i am in a part of Texas where i fit in, and feel welcomed and truly belong, i am finally regaining my spirit and soul and my joie de vivre!!
p.s. by the way, my hospital was staffed heavily by nurses from the Philippines and Canada, because the hospitals would pay for their naturalization, visa, american license, give free housing etc. i got to know one of the Canadian nurses and she was my age (early 40s) and she was blonde beautiful (i mean like miss america beautiful) good body, bubbly friendly personality and she had been there 6 years and had ZERO chance of any romance there. she quickly told me, "forget about any social life here"

Originally Posted by lilelaine25

I am planning a couple visits hopefully toward the spring and summer. I'm going to check out San Antonio and Corpus Christie surrounding area.
This might sound funny but here in Ontario, the humidity is fairly brutal in the summer. We pretty much have smog alerts all summer long and they advise us to stay inside as much as possible. I'm not saying our humidity and heat is anything like Texas but we do get it worse then anywhere else in Canada..even some of the US states aren't as bad as here for that. I'd rather be dripping sweat then freezing for 8 or 9 months out of the year anyways

With my degree (physiotherapy assistant) I've had a bunch of places in Texas begging me to come..they've all pretty much offered to handle the visa process. I was quite surprised by that...some even offered to pay my relocation expenses Yea! I also know there are going to be a lot of legal issues like insurance and taxes that I'll have to hire someone to help me out with. I have no clue where to even start with that. At least its just me and I don't have a family to worry about though.

San Antonio seems nice from what I hear...but isn't it a big city? What about some of the smaller cities or towns around it?

[lilelaine25]

ZERO chance of any romance there. she quickly told me, "forget about any social life here"


Why is that? Where were you in south Texas? Not every single place can be that bad my goodness!!

[NOTAM]

i was in the Corpus Christi area.

Originally Posted by lilelaine25

ZERO chance of any romance there. she quickly told me, "forget about any social life here"


Why is that? Where were you in south Texas? Not every single place can be that bad my goodness!!

[lilelaine25]

ok now I have another question about the South..

right now I'm single, I don't want to stay this way. Eventually I do want to get married and have a family..and when I think about where I move thats part of the consideration.
So why would single women not be able to find eligible men in Corpus? Or some of those other places south of San Antonio? Is it because of not willing to consider Hispanics?

I've seen people on here tell singles to go to Austin but I'm not 'liberal' and I'm not into the bar/drinking/partying thing..I'd rather find a good Christian guy. Austin seems to be the place of choice for singles because of those reasons.
Although wherever I live God can work a miracle .. of that I'm sure

[NOTAM]

Austin has the "reputation" of being liberal, but i assure you there are lots of conservatives in the greater Austin area.
i will pm you to answer the other question you have about eligible men...

Originally Posted by lilelaine25

ok now I have another question about the South..

right now I'm single, I don't want to stay this way. Eventually I do want to get married and have a family..and when I think about where I move thats part of the consideration.
So why would single women not be able to find eligible men in Corpus? Or some of those other places south of San Antonio? Is it because of not willing to consider Hispanics?

I've seen people on here tell singles to go to Austin but I'm not 'liberal' and I'm not into the bar/drinking/partying thing..I'd rather find a good Christian guy. Austin seems to be the place of choice for singles because of those reasons.
Although wherever I live God can work a miracle .. of that I'm sure

[jesuisfou]

I'll fall in line with everyone else and say that San Antonio is wonderful city with great Latin spice. And, if that's what you're looking for, then you can't really get any better in Texas. I'd say Houston's second when it comes to "Latin Flavor"; however, it's a much larger and progressive city, which might not be what you're looking for.

[johnherrera305]

Originally Posted by bellestaroftexas

yeah. i am a healthcare professional too-Emergency Room Registered Nurse. those hospitals down in South Texas sure begged-i was wined and dined-flown down there all expenses paid, hotel/rental car/airfare...woo'ed with a big hefty sign on bonus and big salary. yeah. i sold my soul. after no more than just a few weeks, i KNEW i had made a big mistake, and got out of there in one year alive. (oh and i am a Texan and have lived in Texas most of my life and LOVE TEXAS)...but i will NEVER EVER EVER make that mistake again. South Texas might be for some, but it sure wasnt for me. I really have to say that if you are a caucasian or "anglo" as they call it down there, you need to take caution-be sure that you make a trip down there and spend a good week or two there. go to the WALMART, spend time walking around. go to the grocery store, spend time observing, walking around. if you feel comfortable, then ok. but had i done those simple things, instead of just been rushed from one interview to the next with my free rental car, having no time to do anything else but retire to my hotel room at the end of the day, i would have known. they were pretty dang slick to keep my itinerary that busy, so in hopes that i wouldnt really see what the area and culture were like.
i would have rather spent a year in the sandbox in Iraq. at least there i would have had the moral support of my fellow battle buddies. in South Texas, i was alone and had no one to count on. i was ostracized. i might have well been in solitary confinment/administrative segregation at a TDCJ prison unit!
i lost my soul and spirit in the year that i was there. i came there a bubbly happy go lucky single female. i left with an empty soul. now that i am in a part of Texas where i fit in, and feel welcomed and truly belong, i am finally regaining my spirit and soul and my joie de vivre!!
p.s. by the way, my hospital was staffed heavily by nurses from the Philippines and Canada, because the hospitals would pay for their naturalization, visa, american license, give free housing etc. i got to know one of the Canadian nurses and she was my age (early 40s) and she was blonde beautiful (i mean like miss america beautiful) good body, bubbly friendly personality and she had been there 6 years and had ZERO chance of any romance there. she quickly told me, "forget about any social life here"

Sounds like you have a problem with people of other races than yourself. I think that's what bothered you the most. Diversity is not your thing. And to think you are in the MEDICAL FIELD and entrusted to help sick people. Please tell me what city you live in now so I CAN STAY FAR AWAY! Maybe if you would've opened up to meeting and socializing with people other than blondes, maybe you would've had a better social life. I think you did the people of S Texas a favor when you left.

[lydunn]

Oh well come to the Midwest alot of people here are not accepting to the hispanic race and what kills me is when they yell at them DUh they don't understand the langugae they are not DEAF.....AMERICA PLEASE WAKE UP