Texas Gulf Coast - Question? (San Antonio, Victoria: house insurance, house, quality of life)

[hellpaso]

if you're interested in spi, you might check out port isabel. it's right across from the island.

[Marlow]

Sounds like you have a good plan. I wouldn't discount SPI because of the cost of living until you've checked it out. Although it's prime coastal real estate, it's still the Rio Grande Valley. No offense intended to anyone--I love the area. And, as someone said above, look around Port Isabel and some of the little communities just west of there. I also wouldn't discount Rockport/Port Aransas/Aransas Pass because of what that one poster was saying. I'm sure there's drug use and dealing but I doubt if it's any worse there than it is anywhere else. Aransas Pass has a more working class feel to it while Port Aransas is more touristy and Rockport feels more retirement/resort-ish. Also, if you do look around Corpus Christi, drive around Flour Bluff some. Not sure exactly what you're looking for, but FB has some interesting neighborhoods.

Good luck with it all!

[hound 109]

Originally Posted by Bowie

Port Lavaca. It's small, but not too small and it's not overrun with tourists.

I read a little travel article on Port Lavaca....& it sounded like a cool weekend visit. Nicely out of the way & it sounds like it's a real town (as opposed to a street with motels.

I'm gonna check it out.

[hellpaso]

i had a friend who worked briefly in port lavaca. she was miserable there--most of the housing is run down trailers & there is the constant threat of explosions and release of toxic gases from the plants. the nearest full size supermarket is all the way in victoria. a very depressed, & depressing, area.

[case44]

I would build a weekend retreat on Tiki Island, near Galveston. If I decide on a regular home, it would be further inland.

[whitechocolate86]

Port Aransas

[madbeachdogs]

Port Lavaca -

Is the air full of polution from the plants?
Does it actually eat the paint off your car?
Will trees and flowers grow there?
Does the sky ever clear up to show clouds and sun?
Every pic I see is overcast and gloomy?

[Bo]

Originally Posted by madbeachdogs

Port Lavaca -

Is the air full of polution from the plants?
Does it actually eat the paint off your car?
Will trees and flowers grow there?
Does the sky ever clear up to show clouds and sun?
Every pic I see is overcast and gloomy?

That's probably a question that would be partially answered in and better to ask in a Port Lavaca thread, like the thread at the link below.

Port Lavaca Info

[TT Dave]

I would say Port Aransas or the South Padre area. I've been to Port Aransas several times and SPI as well and love both of them. Port Aransas is close to Corpus Christi and SPI is close to Harlingen and Brownsville so I don't think you could go wrong with either area.

[AlfredB1979]

Port O'Connor. That would be my getaway along the coast.

On a foggy night at the docks, I could still get H-town TV stations on the boat very well. Better than anything from the south by far.

When I was last there, there was some pretty sweet houses going up along the ICW that we'd pass by on the way out the Matagorda jetties. They rebuilt quite well after Hurricane Gilbert, if that was the storm that did the damage down there.

I will never miss that bottleneck on the way out, though. If you've never been in a 100-foot long, 75-ton crewboat and heading offshore at 4AM and had the nose end of the boat pointing straight up at the moon, you don't want to experience that landing.

Otherwise, I may have been "that guy" who's mentioned that most of the bigger coastal communities are full of bums and druggies, which is why I wouldn't bother with any of them. Maybe they cleaned up since I last worked offshore in 05....who knows. But, I'm not hugely people friendly, so that that fwiw.