Abilene, Midland/Odessa OR El Paso (Lubbock, San Angelo: real estate, tornadoes, travel)

[jcsm]

I am tossing three places around for my husband and me retire. We are in our 50's, both of us are disabled, with few problems to getting around. We are not sure where to move, Abilene, Midland/Odessa or El Paso. We need excelent hospitals and doctors for health reasons (Heart condition mainly). Dry weather is important, do not want extreme heat mornings and evenings (afternoon are OK) but do not want extreme cold either. Allergies are a big problem. Nice homes and neiborhood but not expensive living. Low property & sales tax. All imput is greatly appreciated.

[Scholar]

For dry climates, I would recommend Midland/ Odessa or El Paso.

I know that Odessa has some great things going on in the cardiac field. Don't know about the others.

Odessa is cheaper than Midland, generally, but there are some really nice neighborhoods there, too. They are close enough to benefit from what each town has to offer.

I've been caught in snow and ice in all three areas, but Abilene's was the worst.

Our family's allergies are always much better in the Midland/ Odessa area. I had a huge allergy and asthma attack driving through El Paso because of a dust storm blowing over from Mexico. The dust also contained smoke from Mexico. The industry in El Paso makes my allergies worse.

Some things that you didn't mention were crime and traffic. We feel least safe in El Paso, and the traffic in El Paso is a million times worse than Midland/ Odessa or Abilene.

Hope this helps!

[texasdiver]

My wife is a doctor. We moved to Texas 4 years ago for her residency and interviewed at about 10 places around the state.

Her impression of the big hospital in El Paso where she interviewed was "my God, it's like they are in absolute slow motion there." She was not at all impressed with the medical facilities and they are absolutely overwhelmed with border medicine. My wife is Hispanic, but she was also put off by the fact that El Paso is about 90% Hispanic as a city. I drove around the city looking at real estate during the 2 days that she interviewed there. And while there are plenty of nice houses in the NW part of the city in the hills, there are very few public parks or even sidewalks on most of the streets. It did not seem a friendly city for pedestrians or kids. I drove around endlessly looking for parks and playgrounds for our daughter to play on.

If you want the dry desert climate of El Paso, but a nicer place to live, you should check out Las Cruces New Mexico. It is about 1 hour north of El Paso, so you can still drive into El Paso for the major airport and shopping at the big malls and Costco. But the air is clean and Las Cruces has a brand new Hospital that looks very nice. Well it was brand new in 2003. In fact there are two large hospitals there for a fairly small town. Of all the towns we visited in Texas and New Mexico, I thought Las Cruces would be the nicest place to live. It is somewhat in the mountains so you have that cool desert air in mornings and evenings.

Might also want to check out Lubbock. It has world-class medical facilities and is quite dry. The residency program there is one of the best in the state.

[5stones]

^^...look into Lubbock.
The winter weather may not be ideal for what you want but it's got EXCELLENT medical care and an EXCELLENT hospital.

next I'd look at Midland/Odessa

El Paso would be last on my list. (but that's me.)

[jcsm]

First I want to thank you all for all the fantastic information. I am definatly going to check into Midland/Odessa, Lubbock and then Las Cruse. I do have the concern about tornados though in Lubbock. What do you know about that. Does anyone know anything about San Angelo. OH one other thing is, we can not go over 2000 ft elevation due to my husbands health. Thanks again

[Lucidus]

Originally Posted by jcsm

First I want to thank you all for all the fantastic information. I am definatly going to check into Midland/Odessa, Lubbock and then Las Cruse. I do have the concern about tornados though in Lubbock. What do you know about that. Does anyone know anything about San Angelo. OH one other thing is, we can not go over 2000 ft elevation due to my husbands health. Thanks again

If you can't go above 2000 ft. then El Paso, Midland/Odessa, Las Cruces, and Lubbock are all out. I am not sure about Abilene. San Angelo should be ok at about 1500 ft.

[5stones]

I do have the concern about tornados though in Lubbock. What do you know about that. .

I lived there for 5 years...never had a tornado in town. saw one from the hiway traveling to witchita falls once. Had 3 tornadoes touch down in the PITTSBURG PA area while lived there! hail yes, and dust storms kick up now and then.

Does anyone know anything about San Angelo

never lived there but visited often and really liked it. seems like a real nice town and pretty too.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by jcsm

First I want to thank you all for all the fantastic information. I am definatly going to check into Midland/Odessa, Lubbock and then Las Cruse. I do have the concern about tornados though in Lubbock. What do you know about that. Does anyone know anything about San Angelo. OH one other thing is, we can not go over 2000 ft elevation due to my husbands health. Thanks again

2000 ft elevation? Then that rules out both Midland (my house in the NW sits at 2825 feet) and Lubbock (3000+)....and of course, El Paso, 4000+)...ditto Las Cruces, at 3900+.

Abilene comes in somewhere between 17-1800 ft.

San Angelo.....about the same as Abilene, at a little over 1800 ft.

You will find the lower elevations as you go east....

[texasdiver]

Just curious. What sort of medical condition prevents living about 2,000 ft elevation?

Most of the desert southwest dry areas are relatively high in elevation. You need to go down to the gulf coast area for low elevations and then you lose the dry and get hot and muggy

[jcsm]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Just curious. What sort of medical condition prevents living about 2,000 ft elevation?

Most of the desert southwest dry areas are relatively high in elevation. You need to go down to the gulf coast area for low elevations and then you lose the dry and get hot and muggy

My husbands doctor told us, that the elevation would make his heart to work harder and there for stated we need a dryer climate but at sea level. I have a call into him now to discuss this further.