College Station vs. Wichita falls vs Longview (Dallas, Austin: extended stay, rental)

[bussun]

Had a few job interviews, including abovementioned and Austin. Austin reminded me of yet another metro city, have had enough of these and need a break. Regarding abovementioned cities, will be making six figure salaries (slightly higher in WF) and will need to stay for at least 2 to 3 years after signing the contract. Single man in my late 30's, over the night life partying stage. What do you think?

[Mark Senior]

If you want a slower pace of life, with little nightlife, W.F. is your best bet for 2 - 3 years, then likely, get the heck out of that military, non - growth place, not close to anything in particular. Now, just to be "fair", there are a few places worse to live. Weekends, you would likely go exploring, where?

College Station, you probably know, is a rapidly growing crowded college town, with over 62,000 students attending Texas A. & M. Climate between the two is different. But? C.S. is immediately next door to Bryan, making a crowded metro of well over 200,000. College Station, of course, is a nicer looking place than W.F.

You are not retiring or looking for an extended stay, you might not be put out, or mind, just making more for a few years, pocket the difference. Of course, maybe you don't care to sorta, waste your life.

There is a considerable difference between these to places, one C.S. very vibrant, the other pretty much stagnant, not in a hurry to do anything. This is just IMHO.

[Trainwreck20]

Of those three, Longview is the prettiest area and the one I would pick (of those three). But that is just me .

[C24L]

I would pick College Station but thats only my opinion.

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Of those three, Longview is the prettiest area and the one I would pick (of those three). But that is just me .

Did you add Longview as a third choice, you said higher pay in W.F. over C.S. earlier. If Longview is thrown into the mix now, Longview, by a lot.

I know very much about Longview, a "Little Brother" to Tyler, my home town. No college scene, laid back, much much better scenery than W.F. two hours to DFW, Dallas-Fort Worth if you didn't know, for your fix.

Slowly, very slowly growing areas, many nice areas, but for a short 2-3 year stay, IMHO, very best. Many more amenities in Tyler 40-45 minutes away. Better airport flight options.

But if you could live in Longview, does that mean you could have your work in Tyler, which would in many ways be your better option? Read-up on Tyler in it's sub-forum. Often Longview, closeby is referred to in the Tyler Forum.

Would you be adding a fourth city to your original post? Thanks

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by bussun

Had a few job interviews, including abovementioned and Austin. Austin reminded me of yet another metro city, have had enough of these and need a break. Regarding abovementioned cities, will be making six figure salaries (slightly higher in WF) and will need to stay for at least 2 to 3 years after signing the contract. Single man in my late 30's, over the night life partying stage. What do you think?

What an enviable position to be in. Young and carefree. If it’s only for 2-3 years, jobs are similar and you don’t care about metro areas, visit all and pick whichever town feels prettiest and can offer nicest rental home.

[bussun]

Thank you for the replies. To answer some of your questions, my schedule will allow me more than a weekend to explore, so I can take a flight anyware for a few days. I visited these and other cities in Texas, and it came down to these three. I am basically looking for a place with decent people with an investment potential sometime in the not so long future, and possibly settling down.

[RSTX]

I have lived in College Station for 3.5 years. I moved here from Wichita Falls, so I can give a pretty good account of both.

I'm in a different life stage than you, having a wife and three children. While living in WF, our weekends revolved around school activities and/or family time, not really single guy entertainment. Still, we would go to movies, the theater (for a small-ish town, the theater was pretty good), and a couple of times per year to the Wichita Mountains park in Oklahoma to hike and enjoy being outside. There is a small regional university there with about 6000 students that offers some degree of activities. WF is a fairly self-contained town, meaning it has just about everything you might want without having to travel. Which is good, because it is isolated. Fort Worth is about 2 hours away, which isn't terrible, but there it is. The population is mixed, and I found that many people that live there have always lived there. Born and raised, along with all of their kin. It is not very transient. The military base, Sheppard AFB, is on the far north side and doesn't have much impact that I could discern. It is fairly small. The regional airport is a joint deal between the city and military. It is easy to get into and out of, offering flights to DFW and no charge to park! In town, there are some trees and green spaces, but it is a very dry area for the most part. The scenery is not much unless you like flat, mesquite covered land. The sunsets are nice.

College Station is almost the exact opposite. It is a college town (duh, I know) and has a young, vibrant feel. Our kids are older now, so we are not in the birthday party scene any more. That means my wife and I can do more adult things, and we enjoy the huge variety of restaurants in town. The town feels like it has less permanence than WF because so few people are actually from CS. It is a college town, as I said, and very transient. Bryan is less so, having more history as a, well, town. CS is growing rapidly which brings its own problems of traffic and infrastructure. It is changing to a city where adults want to live as it grows to the south, away from TAMU campus. Obviously, with 60,000+ students there will be many young-adult centered activities and opportunities around campus. This may appeal to you. My wife is an Aggie alum and I enjoy the young, energetic vibe that comes from A&M, so we will be here for a while. Maybe into retirement.

I've only been to Longview once and remember it as being very pretty with lots of trees. That is all I have for that. Tyler is a City-Data darling at the moment, so you should check it out as well. I've never been there, but according to many regulars here it is nearly Heaven.

TL;DR: If you are looking to make some money and can put up with WF for a few years go for it. COL is lower there than CS for sure. It is not quiet the armpit of Texas, but it certainly is not a vacation mecca. CS exists because of 60k+ students. If you like feeling young and free, jump on in!

Best of luck to you.

[KathrynAragon]

I am not familiar with College Station so I will limit my observations to WF and Longview.

My daughter lived in WF for several years and I visited her often. To be honest, though I'm sure it has some positives, I wasn't impressed with it in any way and neither was my daughter for that matter. It just seems stuck out in the middle of nowhere and a little run down.

Longview has much prettier scenery and also has a more affluent "feel" to it. It's about two hours to Dallas and one hour to Shreveport LA, right on Interstate 20. North Longview has some especially nice neighborhoods.

That being said, Tyler is, as others have pointed out, Longview's "big brother" and in my opinion it beats Longview hands down - and I lived and worked in Longview for 8 years and Tyler for about 15 so I do know a bit about both small cities.

If you have some leeway and can sort of choose your locale, you owe it to yourself in my opinion to consider Tyler. It's only about 40 minutes west of Longview, and it's closer to Dallas which is nice when you need it (for me that's about once a month so I'm glad for the close proximity without actually having to LIVE IN Dallas).

Tyler really is a beautiful, pleasant small city and it's very economically healthy - moreso than WF or Longview by the way.

Anyway, hope that helps!

[bussun]

Thanks everyone. Your input is highly appreciated!