old houses, shady trees. where should we go? (Austin, Fort Worth: transplants, crime)

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by ripley

Again. No mention of small town in original post.

Sorry, I missed that. My apologies.

[Muhnay]

UVALDE TX, VICTORIA TX, AND LUFKIN TX, to name a few. LUFKIN area beware of banjos in the hills.. =)

[StillMissingNC]

Try Nacogdoches, if East Texas is close enough to NM &CO for you. It is the oldest city in Texas, has several little historic districts with old houses, some nice parks including the SFA arboretum, pretty good schools I believe with Stephen F. Austin University also there, crime a little lower than average, the people are reasonably friendly, and lots of beautiful trees including dogwoods and larger hardwoods and of course plenty of pine. There are some Phd's there but they are required to register and not to bother the rest of the citizens. So, get your bags packed and visit it this spring!

[turnbun]

Wimberly, TX would be a great place for you to look at. It's in the Hill Country.

[songinthewind7]

Fredericksburg and Kerrville have old houses, especially Fbg.has historical houses.
Lots of shady trees too. Hopefully, we will have a ton of rain like we did last night and things will get greener.
A days drive to New Mexico and probably two days to Colorado depending on what parts you drive to. I know it's about a 10 hour drive to Ruidoso.

[ripley]

Texas is a big, big state.

Mineola, Pittsburg, Tyler, Gilmer, Mt. Pleasant, Marshall, Henderson, Hubbard and many more fit most of the criteria listed, but the comments referring to crime, and education lead us to believe this couple would have some concerns with these towns and most of those suggested in this thread.

Without knowing anything about the couple other than the criteria they listed, I would assume they are financially secure and would not be satisfied with many of these areas.

To be fairly close to relatives in NM and Colorado, they would need to be close to a major airport to fly, or west of Fort Worth for a reasonable drive.

This narrows things down a bit more.

[4wainwrights]

hi all (:
thanks for all of your suggestions! ripley, do i read your email correctly that, in your opinion, the towns listed by others have high crime and low education?
as to distance from nm., anywhere in tx would be fine. "closer" is relative -- closer than pennsylvania is what we're looking for (:
thanks again!!
does anyone know about paris and bonham texas?
(:
amy

[ripley]

Much like the distance issue, high crime and low education are also relative.

Depends on what you're expectations are and what you're comparing these areas to.

Another issue is "cost of a home". If you're range tops out at $175,000, that narrows the list. If it is $300,000 or unlimited, the list gets larger.

If there are certain demograhics (race, income, average age, etc.) you desire, that changes things yet again.

Paris would not be on my list for numerous reasons, but others may disagree.

I don't know enough about Bonham, but have always though of tornadoes and hail storms when I think of that area of the state.

[robinhood]

I just drive through Bonham to get to Sherman. It doesn't have much to offer. The only thing we use Bonham for is the occasional quick trip to the Super Wal-Mart there. I won't comment on their school system, but I can say that the school were my children go has lots of transfers from Bonham. It must mean something if many of the residents of Bonham take their children somewhere else for education. Paris is larger than Bonham and has more access to shopping and medical care. They have 3 different school districts. I've heard great things about 2 of the districts there. Still I would say Sherman is a better city for shopping and medical care. I read a post earlier which says that Paris has nothing to offer in restaurants. They may not have as large a selection as a larger city, but for their size they do okay. Paris has TaMolly's(my favorite), Applebee's, Chile's, China Star, Pizza Hut, and most fast food chain restaurants.

[TERRIE]

Ripley...fyi I Got Your Joke Right Of The Bat! Funny, I Don't Even Live In Tx Yet....hmmm