Me and my family are wondering why Houston Texas is super cheap!

[Cougar31]

Originally Posted by higces

I am going to move to Houston, I live at plantation in Broward, and i really love it, I would like to find a similar place in Houston, where would you recomend?

NorthWest of Houston has been growing:

[texas7]

Areas with metro running through it make room for lower end apartments and the chances that residents who can't afford a car moving into your area are greater - people assume that poverty breeds crime (it does in some case and not in others) so that is why another poster said to stay away from areas with public transport. This is probably why residents of Pearland and Friendswood and other suburbs have consistently voted to keep Metro out.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by texas7

Areas with metro running through it make room for lower end apartments

Huh? Buses always spawn cheap apartments? And all this time I thought it was developers who built apartments. How's that work?

Originally Posted by texas7

and the chances that residents who can't afford a car moving into your area are greater

I don't understand how people who can't afford a car are going to go into auto-dependent suburbs and pay what people pay in Friendswood and Pearland to live there. You don't have grocery stores and other basic stuff right around every corner like in the city.

Originally Posted by texas7

people assume that poverty breeds crime (it does in some case and not in others) so that is why another poster said to stay away from areas with public transport.

How does this explain the recent home invasions and burglaries in The Woodlands, among other places without Metro? Simple - it doesn't. Once again, you need your own ride to load up with someone else's loot you've stolen. It's also not very convenient to make a getaway at the bus stop hoping the bus gets there before the cops.

Originally Posted by texas7

This is probably why residents of Pearland and Friendswood and other suburbs have consistently voted to keep Metro out.

Maybe they don't like buses because they like their Hummers and their Suburbans to be the biggest vehicles on the road?

[EasilyAmused]

Metro runs smack dab right through River Oaks, Tanglewood and Memorial. Those residental areas actually have a low crime rate. Residents are aware that there is crime and don't make themselves a target. Buses don't bring crime. How can you haul off loot on Metro? It's a little obvious when you and your pals load a flat screen on the bike carrier.

Burbs grow and need more services. Services need more low income employees. Low income employees need a place to live. Developers build them some. Employees lose a job and resort to theft. Local residents never lock their doors and think because they pay crazy taxs to live away from the big, bad city they're immune to crime. BLAMMO you have a crime rate.

[jfre81]

Criminals prey on people whose guards are down...

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

Metro runs smack dab right through River Oaks, Tanglewood and Memorial. Those residental areas actually have a low crime rate. Residents are aware that there is crime and don't make themselves a target.

This is the old-money area; they aren't as flashy as the new-money.

[jfre81]

In and around River Oaks you don't ever know when you're standing next to an average Joe or a multmillionaire.

[texas7]

People without transportion can easily move to the burbs if they have a bus line running through it. Second, developers do build apartments first - but the more affordable ones will many times be on a direct bus route or they evolve into more affordable after some amount of time. One of the primary reasons Pearland/Friendswood (when they had the first opportunity to vote on allowing Metro in) was to discourage those without their own transportation from moving in. Crime isn't just burglaries - it is point blank robbery for your cash and your car. Simply observations...........and memories of living in Pearland and having a person associated with the City of Friendswood tell me that the reason they were one of the safest communities in the U.S. is that they had very few apartment complexes (and the residents who lived in them) and it was majority single family dwelling and they tried not to allow much apartment development in the area for that very reason.

[Tex?Il?]

My guess,

is that many people across the country and even around the world still refuse to acknowledge that Texas cities are places of Cosmopolitan culture. They don't realize how much there is too offer. They keep believing its shows like Dallas, Walker Texas Ranger (which I was a fan of besides!) and movies like Urban Cowboy.

Stetson wearing, pro-capital punishment, evangelical oil company executives working in shiny new skyscrapers with no cultural amenities nearby with nothing fun to do, commuting back to their "ranch" at the end of the day is still the stereotype it seems even for the cities!

Its probably one of the misunderstood and complex states in the country. But the silver lining to that is that you get so much in Houston and other Texas cities for your dollar.

[Wysiwyg]

its not the buses or public transportation. its the foot traffic - it makes it difficult to spot suspicious activity when pedestrians are part of the landscape. most people in the burbs react differently when kids, the elderly or an unfamiliar adult walks past their house a few times. then theres the "i'm just waiting for my wife/husband/whoever, officer" excuse for loitering. and eventhough the good people may enjoy public transportation the bad ones will exploit it. soon there will be jews being robbed of their purses, blacks/middleeasterns robbed of their chains, students mugged by schoolmates, trashy convenience and 99cent stores popping up, people with blaring boomboxes walking around, getting into buses, then theres the cool grafitti guy putting his signature here and there, people turning up the car sound system to impress the folks waiting for the bus... well you get the picture. its a stage