Family of 4, school age children, mom is a nurse, houston vs.? (Dallas: best neighborhood, real estate)

[Bear239]

Hi there.
We are considering relocating to TX from California. I'm a nurse with 10 years' experience in med surg telemetry. Kids are currently in kindergarten (yes, twins). Husband is a business owner. We are in our late 30s. I've heard a ton about Houston being big for nursing but I'm concerned about the competition for jobs and the humidity. Can anyone recommend a good place for us to live where 1) commute will be reasonable 2) less humidity 3) good schools 4) hospitals, especially teaching 5) homes are affordable and include large lots 6) plenty of activities for our family to partake in?

[texasdiver]

Houston is enormous. Like the size of New Jersey.

Find a job first and the neighborhood will fall into place. There are good areas to live on all sides of Houston and there are hospitals spread out all through the metro area.

That said, people in your position looking for schools and kid friendly neighborhoods often gravitate to the Katy area west of Houston which is probably the fastest growing part of the Houston area.

[hound 109]

Agree with Diver, line up your job, THEN ask for the best neighborhood etc. Other comments in you post below:

Originally Posted by Bear239

Hi there. We are considering relocating to TX from California. Where is SoCal? I'm a nurse with 10 years' experience in med surg telemetry. Good INFO. Kids are currently in kindergarten (yes, twins). Good INFO. Husband is a business owner.

What type? Will he be working out of home or opening up a storefront?

We are in our late 30s. I've heard a ton about Houston being big for nursing but I'm concerned about the competition for jobs and the humidity.

Best cities for nursing first to last: Houston, Dallas/FW, San Antonio, Austin.
Worst cities for humidity: Houston......& then DFW, SA, Austin tied for less humid.

Can anyone recommend a good place for us to live where 1) commute will be reasonable What is your definition of reasonable? All metros have traffic, so live near where you work. 2) less humidity see above. 3) good schools What is your definition of "good". & all metro areas have superlative schools, good schools & average/below average schools. 4) hospitals, especially teaching I suspect Htown is best....but I'll defer to others. 5) homes are affordable and include large lots What is your definition of affordable? (jeez, you live in SoCal !!) (note: normally, the better the school or school feeder, the HIGHER the price of the home). Also, What is your definition of "large" lots? (Note: normally, the older the home the larger the lot). 6) plenty of activities for our family to partake in? All metro areas have gobs of activities to partake in. What do you all like to do ??

Figure out where your job options are. Then, after you know WHERE they are, come back & ask specific questions, you'll get good info.

[Texas Ag 93]

Originally Posted by Bear239

Hi there.
We are considering relocating to TX from California. I'm a nurse with 10 years' experience in med surg telemetry. Kids are currently in kindergarten (yes, twins). Husband is a business owner. We are in our late 30s. I've heard a ton about Houston being big for nursing but I'm concerned about the competition for jobs and the humidity. Can anyone recommend a good place for us to live where 1) commute will be reasonable 2) less humidity 3) good schools 4) hospitals, especially teaching 5) homes are affordable and include large lots 6) plenty of activities for our family to partake in?

1. Where in SoCal are you? If you are in the L.A. area, you will not be daunted or deterred by Houston's size, because it is still smaller in comparison to L.A. metro.

2. The largest concentration of hospitals in Houston are in the Texas Medical Center, which is the largest Medical Center in the World. It is located (roughly) in the middle of the Houston, just South of downtown. All the institutions are, by definition, guided by a teaching, education, or research component. However, all of the large Health Systems (Memorial Hermann, Methodist, St. Luke's, even Texas Children's) have satellite hospitals (some quite large) in the large suburbs like Katy, Sugarland etc. They aren't the system flagships and I am not sure they even do teaching, but it would seem those facilities offer the best of both worlds (teaching hospital rep but community hospital feel).

3. Houston is humid. All of SE Texas is humid. For that matter, most of Texas and the entire South is humid. You cannot avoid the humidity. I can't imagine any one part of town has anything other than a negligible difference in humidity from another.

4. Define "affordable" for housing? What's your budget? Real Estate prices inside "The Loop" (i.e. the 610 freeway that runs the a loop around town) are much higher than the fast growing suburbs. For suburbs, I would suggest looking into Katy (West), Sugarland (SW) or Pearland (South). North of town, there is the Woodlands or possibly Kingwood.

[Prey521]

I DETEST the heat/humidity, which is why I was very skeptical to accept the relo package from my company to move here from NY....especially since I love the cold weather. After 2 years here, while the humidity does suck and you "may" eventually get used to it/learn to deal with it, all of the good that comes from living in Houston/Texas in general far outweigh the humid summers. Whether it's Dallas or Houston, it's an upgrade over Los Angeles, I'll tell you that. Good luck!

[Bear239]

Thank you for the replies. Yes, I live in a suburb of Los Angeles which is almost as busy as L.A. Metro but not as crowded although crime rate and quality of education (ugghhh) is similar. The heat here is too dry and we waste a lot of water trying to keep our plants alive. I think the family will get used to the South's humidity. The lot our home sits on is about 1/4 acre, not as small as the ones in L.A. Metro area. I would like to find a 3-5 bedroom home on about 1/2 acre lot more or less. Our budget is $250K.

A reasonable commute would be about 30-45 min one-way. My husband will open a store-front business where he can find a good deal.

To me, a good school has an API of 800 or more with options for advance studies and extracurricular activities in arts and sports.

I'm glad to hear that Houston, although vast, is still not as large and overwhelming as Los Angeles. I really want to be in a multi-cultural setting with access to ethnic foods and a variety of shopping venues.

[Texas Ag 93]

With your budget, I would think you definitely will end up looking in the suburbs.

Everyone complains about humidity, but you rarely hear people complain about living in dry climates and how it affects your body. I live in Denver now and I suffer from dry, cracked hands that are covered with cuts for 4-5 months of the year. My 7 year old has nosebleeds a few times a month. My 4 year old's lips are so chapped, I had to take her to the doctor. Humidity sucks for a lot of things, but at least it's great for your skin

[wintersbone]

Do you have your BS degree in nursing? If not don't come here.

[Bear239]

Wintersbone, anyone with any kind of sense knows you can't get a job anywhere reputable without a BSN.

[wintersbone]

Originally Posted by Bear239

Wintersbone, anyone with any kind of sense knows you can't get a job anywhere reputable without a BSN.

you would be surprised how many people get an associates and then find out they cant find a job.