New lease on life (Houston, San Antonio: rental, low crime, house)

[Newtexan15]

I really need some honest, hard in your face honest feedback ... I hope someone can assist me. I lived 40 mts out of Chicago, northwest side, where school are great and the neighborhood is super safe. We have everything we need around the 10 miles radius so don't need to go to Chicago if not necessary or to visit. I have set my mind, eyes and heart in the area of Austin. I'm looking to get away from the snow and cold terrible weather but I know I will miss the place that I call home for over 30 yrs. my kids are adults and only my daughter is adventuring with me. Here is where my worry is ... She panics about tornadoes and crime. We are simple people that we just want to have a decent living and a nice comfortable neighborhood. So the question is ... Any recommendations? And if you really want to help a mom, please let me know the pros and cons. Sincerely appreciated of any help.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Newtexan15

I really need some honest, hard in your face honest feedback ... I hope someone can assist me. I lived 40 mts out of Chicago, northwest side, where school are great and the neighborhood is super safe. We have everything we need around the 10 miles radius so don't need to go to Chicago if not necessary or to visit. I have set my mind, eyes and heart in the area of Austin. I'm looking to get away from the snow and cold terrible weather but I know I will miss the place that I call home for over 30 yrs. my kids are adults and only my daughter is adventuring with me. Here is where my worry is ... She panics about tornadoes and crime. We are simple people that we just want to have a decent living and a nice comfortable neighborhood. So the question is ... Any recommendations? And if you really want to help a mom, please let me know the pros and cons. Sincerely appreciated of any help.

not enough info to help, but it is really hot here.

tornadoes are in illinois too at about the same frequency which is almost never.

crime is low here, if you live in a more expensive area there will be less crime.

If you just want warm weather, no tornadoes and low crime, there are a ton of cities that would fit the bill. You must be looking for something else.

[Komeht]

Texas is definitely tornado country (we are in Tornado Alley after all)- and we get some really big ones here now and then. But so is Illinois - so it's a wash. Matter of fact - Illinois gets about 9.7 Tornadoes / 10,000 square miles and Texas gets 5.9 / 10,000 square miles. We have a lot more square miles though.

You're right that we don't have the snow and cold weather. But what else? I mean, same is true of any number of places in the US - that's not a good enough reason to move to Austin. Also, warm weather sounds great - but our summers can be brutal at times (and recently more often than not, but this year was great).

Decent living - sure possible - yes, you can do that in many places as well.
Nice comfortable neighborhoods - sure they're here - lots of places have this.

[G Grasshopper]

I agree that it would be good to look at your reasons for wanting to move to Austin. Do your grown kids live in places that have less severe winters? Do you have siblings who live in warmer climates? It is hard to leave family and friends and a community to move to somewhere that you have no connections, just for the weather. (And I don't know if you would like the heat of Texas.) Are you working? What about jobs?

When my father died, years ago, my mom seized upon a place she wanted to move to that would have just been a disaster. There was no reason, other than she read an article about it and formed some sort of "life will be better" dream. She would have been completely isolated from family, friends, community, and even from the culture she was used to. We convinced her to wait a while, and that dream eventually faded. (Thank God.) She later agreed that it was an illogical obsession, created from her grief, her urge to get away from the pain. Of course, I have no idea if something like this is going on with you, and I hope that you are not in the grips of grief. But the point is that these decisions need to be made in the cold light of day, not because we have our heart set on a place. You need to critically evaluate the possible places to move, based on all your needs (and your daughter's needs as well,) not just weather.

[north2south.]

We moved from Chicago to austin! We love it so far and just bought a home here. Crime is near nothing. Weather is awesome in comparison to Chicago winters. Tornadoes... It's possible but not as likely as Chicago. I think it's rained maybe 5 times since we moved here.. The hill country and Colorado river are beautiful and a nice change of pace from flat Illinois. Everything is building like crazy here so there is so much being added in terms of food and retail/ housing. The suburbs are nice (I like cedar park, leander, georgetown) and feel similar in many ways to Chicago suburbs.

Austin is cheaper than Chicago area too although it's becoming more expensive. Traffic does suck. Public transportation does suck. Some entertainment options such as pro sports- and zoos/aquariums/museums are seriously lacking and of course most of the awesome food options that call Chicago home will be gone.

So there are give and takes for sure but I think austin is a great place to call home overall.

[hound 109]

Originally Posted by Newtexan15

I really need some honest, hard in your face honest feedback ... I hope someone can assist me. I lived 40 mts out of Chicago, northwest side, where school are great and the neighborhood is super safe. We have everything we need around the 10 miles radius so don't need to go to Chicago if not necessary or to visit. I have set my mind, eyes and heart in the area of Austin. I'm looking to get away from the snow and cold terrible weather but I know I will miss the place that I call home for over 30 yrs. my kids are adults and only my daughter is adventuring with me. Here is where my worry is ... She panics about tornadoes and crime. We are simple people that we just want to have a decent living and a nice comfortable neighborhood. So the question is ... Any recommendations? And if you really want to help a mom, please let me know the pros and cons. Sincerely appreciated of any help.

I can recommend 10 neighborhoods & 20 towns, but......

- What's your budget?
- Where will your job(s) be?

- Why greater Austin? (Why not greater Houston / San Antonio ?)

[hoffdano]

My closest co-worker is a Chicago native that moved to Austin a bit over ten years ago. He has never looked back (though he goes back to visit family).

What does he like about Austin?

- overall quality of life: housing choices, schools, safety, weather
- politics in Texas
- long term outlook of Texas over Illinois

What does he miss about Chicago?

- specific foods, especially pizza

No doubt you will trade hot summers for cold winters. It will take you a few years to adjust. Illinois has high property taxes like Texas. But no income tax here. You'll probably drive more. Maybe you'll miss pro sports, but did you really go to Bears and Cubs games?

[A-Tex]

Originally Posted by north2south.

We moved from Chicago to austin! We love it so far and just bought a home here. Crime is near nothing. Weather is awesome in comparison to Chicago winters. Tornadoes... It's possible but not as likely as Chicago. I think it's rained maybe 5 times since we moved here.. The hill country and Colorado river are beautiful and a nice change of pace from flat Illinois. Everything is building like crazy here so there is so much being added in terms of food and retail/ housing. The suburbs are nice (I like cedar park, leander, georgetown) and feel similar in many ways to Chicago suburbs.

Austin is cheaper than Chicago area too although it's becoming more expensive. Traffic does suck. Public transportation does suck. Some entertainment options such as pro sports- and zoos/aquariums/museums are seriously lacking and of course most of the awesome food options that call Chicago home will be gone.

So there are give and takes for sure but I think austin is a great place to call home overall.

You've lived here a year. It's rained many many more times than five in that year. Austin's average number of rain days is 88 and the average annual inches is 34.2. While it doesn't frequently get "Chicago cold," Austin winters can in no way be called warm. It was in the mid-30s when I left my house this morning, and I have seen many mornings in the teens during the many years I've lived here. And tornadoes are always a distinct possibility. You wouldn't be pooh-poohing them if you'd been here for the F5 that blew through Cedar Park and flattened Jarrell.

OP, you sound like you are trying to flee some kind of unhappiness. You need to really define what you are looking for and how moving anywhere will help. Have you even been to Austin or are you just relying on articles and Internet legends?

[north2south.]

Well this is my 2nd winter here and it doesn't take 55 winters here to see that it's a lot more enjoyable weather wise than Chicago is during this time frame.

Tornadoes.. Sure I get that. Plainfield, il a nearby suburb also was leveled by a tornado a while back. Just last year tornadoes hit frankfort, il another nearby suburb. So yeah they both have the capability of producing tornadoes, though they arnt nearly as common as they are in Oklahoma and Kansas.

And it has literally ACTUALLY rained a handful of times. Other times are barely a drizzle. It's actually almost crazy how little it has actually rained. One big storm since I've been here- over summer that knocked a branch down off a super big tree in the backyard of our rental house. Besides that.. Meh.

[dbsteel]

Trust me..... that lack of rain isn't necessarily a good thing.

From my standpoint, I'd say the best two things of Austin are the overall safety of the city, and the fact that you can find a relatively nice house in the suburbs for under $200,000 if you had to.

The two worst things are just the overall hectic transition and crowds of the city from the roads to the restaurants to the construction, and the lack of big amenities for a city that big. There are plenty of bars and festivals and that kind of stuff though.

The most overrated thing is the weather. The winters can be somewhat cold and dreary, the summers can be brutally hot, so the best times are early spring and late fall. You do get lots of sun, but the storms can be brutal. It seems like there is always a threat hail storm associated with one of those big thunderstorms Austin gets.