Help me investigate Houston! (Dallas, Deer Park: rent, loan, house)

[trepanner]

I'm a CNC machinist living in the Twin Cities area. I've been living here for 20 years now (originally from east coast) and I just can't handle the 7 months of winter here per year any more. Summers here are great but they do not justify staying for the long, cold, gray, miserable winters any longer. I've had my fun doing the ice fishing, snowmobiling, etc... but frankly, I'm bored with it and have reached critical mass after this last winter being the worst one I've ever experienced.
I've been researching places that might be a good fit for me and Texas (Houston) interests me a great deal. The weather to me will be much more to my liking and the job market seems to be stable.

I'm planning a scouting trip to Houston and possibly Dallas within the next month or so. I'm going to try to get a "feel" for the cities I visit. - I would like a little bit of advice on where to concentrate.!!!!

Criteria:

*Like I said, I'm a machinist, so I'll need to try to find a house somewhere within a reasonable drive time to a manufacturing hub or neighborhood.

*I don't have children, so schools are irrelevant.

*I'd like to find a house with a garage - 150k/175k in a suburb that is well kept, yet unpretentious, quiet, etc...

* Night life is not important to me, good neighbors are. (prefer country living)


I'm pretty flexible about minor details. I'd just appreciate some differing suggestions of where and why people prefer one place or another. Thanks very much!

[cheryjohns]

Rent until you know where your job will be (or come down and acquire the job before moving). Houston is massive and there is more than one area that you might be working in. You don't want a 3 hour daily commute. Also, (unless you are paying cash), a home loan is going to be impossible without employment.

It might be best to wait to visit Houston in another month or so. Unless you have experienced the high temperatures/high humidity of Houston summer days, you don't know how you will like it. Obviously, there are plenty of people that are fine with it - but it isn't for everybody.

[Htown2013]

You might like the Deer Park area. That's a decent middle class unpretentious suburb close to one of the largest, if not the largest, industrial complexes in the U.S.

[astrohip]

If you are a decent CNC machinist, you will find a job easily. Making good money. I know two people who own machine shops (which is odd, since I am not in that field, and know nothing about it) who are always, always looking to hire good machinists. And the work is all over town, hardly matters where you live.

But as others have said, Houston is a huge town, rent until you know where you want to live.