Why do you love Houston (and suburbs)? Please Reply! (Dallas: condo, theater)

[BCEagles01]

Will always love my hometown,but I'll say I haven't had to clear 7feet of snow since I was in high school.

I miss the T something awful though. The public transportation in Boston is so underrated.

The cost of living. Massachusetts is nice,but it's San Francisco expensive.

Really.

[analogkid84]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

What other area are you comparing the local climate too ? If you are comparing ti to other parts of Texas we (Houston) usually wins. If you are comparing it to Hawaii then maybe we do not win...

I wasn't making any comparisons. I was merely trying to provide a sense of Houston's position on the temperature/dew point scale over the course of a year (on average), as well as trying to point out (maybe poorly) that relative humidity, without context, is somewhat meaningless.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by analogkid84

I wasn't making any comparisons. I was merely trying to provide a sense of Houston's position on the temperature/dew point scale over the course of a year (on average), as well as trying to point out (maybe poorly) that relative humidity, without context, is somewhat meaningless.

Agreed, the heat index is more relevant than temp or relative humidity but people still manage to ignore this simple gauge. I believe they are more interested in creating negative impressions than honest comparisons.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by BCEagles01

Will always love my hometown,but I'll say I haven't had to clear 7feet of snow since I was in high school.

I miss the T something awful though. The public transportation in Boston is so underrated.

The cost of living. Massachusetts is nice,but it's San Francisco expensive.

Really.

I don't live in Boston, but I miss the T. My dd lives in a Boston suburb and when I went to visit, I stayed downtown and could easily get all over Boston and out to her suburban home on the commuter rail. Of course, Boston is a very small city geographically, so you can also walk all over which you cannot do in Houston (too much sprawl).

I actually moved here from a Chicago suburb and miss the *el* as well. I could be downtown in 30 minutes from my own suburban home. And I could walk along Lake Michigan for miles on the walking and bike paths.

[testmo]

Well you could live in a nice part of the city and be within 15 minutes of it and where i live theres miles and miles of hike and bike trails that run right into downtown. I think a lot of Houstonians dont actually live in houston or know what it has to offer

Npr talked the other day about some crazy percentage of houstonians having no idea of the miles of tunnels we have

[shanv3]

From a non American perspective.
1) Houston is cheaper then CA
2) Very good food options - even African and German cuisines !
3) A bigger airport with almost connectivity to all continents
4) No state tax.
5) Easy access to sun, sand , moutains and snow ( Caribean, Mexico and Colorado) .
6) No snow or bad weather or work from home ( you work whole year )
7) Well planned freeway and tollway system for commute.

6) Humid,
7) Doesn't have a brand name as a "cool" or tourist destination.
8) Lack of other natural features like CAL or FL or NYC.

For 500K you can get a very big home than you would in CAL.

[David Dollar]

Loving humidity.....yeah. Is it the way your sheets stick to you? Immediate sweat when stepping outside? The way it mixes with the pollution? Sounds great!

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by David Dollar

Loving humidity.....yeah. Is it the way your sheets stick to you? Immediate sweat when stepping outside? The way it mixes with the pollution? Sounds great!

I believe answers 6,7, and 8 in the second group are the downsides of Houston in his opinion. Most people would have figured that out....

[dalparadise]

Originally Posted by LHRSEASMF

Hello! My husband and I (and our 2 small children) have a job opportunity in Houston and are looking to hear from people who live there, have relocated there, and are raising families there. We have read as many threads, blogs and articles as we can get our hands on, but would like to hear more first hand opinions on life in Houston. So would you please take a minute and tell us what you love about Houston? What's not to love about Houston? Do you adjust to the weather? Do people spend time outdoors a good chunk of the year? Any one who relocated, how was it to make new friends? What do people do for fun? If you live in the suburbs, do you take your kids to the city to explore often? What hobbies do you have? How is the coast area for local vacations?

A little about us - we are a mid 30's professional couple with two toddlers. We moved from London to Seattle to Roseville, CA (near Sacramento). We currently live in the burbs in a nice planned community with a neighborhood pool, great amenities and decent schools. We like it here, but wish we were a bit closer to a big city (San Francisco is 2 hours away). We go to the Lake Tahoe area frequently for family fun. We are good people, open minded, hard workers, non-church going, looking to provide a great life with lots of opportunities for our kids.

Living in Roseville we are used to the heat (averages over 100 degrees all summer here), but not necessarily the humidity. We've pondered a move near San Francisco, but recently have an opportunity to consider Houston and are really attracted to the idea that we could be much more financially stable in Houston. Our income will be around $170K in either place and we know that money will go much further in Houston! We love to travel - even just road trip and are intrigued by exploring the Gulf Coast. We are looking to make sort of a last move for a long time to provide our kids some roots once they start school.

My husband would work near the Galleria and we have been looking at Sugar Land, Pearland, and Katy. Other suggestions?

Thank you in advance for your replies.

I'll offer you a perspective in the opposite direction. I moved from Houston to San Francisco 3.5 years ago.

Reading through this thread, I believe Houston has been accurately presented, but am not sure your exact questions have been answered. Specifically, I am reading your desire for more urban life, while recognizing the need for caring for your kids.

I have said many times that, if I were raising a family, Houston would be a great choice. I believe the environment for kids is very good. The suburban public schools offer great opportunities and the real estate options available for young families is awesome. Prices on homes are comparable to slightly less than Sac. in Houston, but beware the property tax rate, MUD fees, etc. There are people paying effective property tax rates of nearly 4% in Sugar Land.

That said, you will be impressed by the lifestyle $170K will buy in Houston versus places like London, Seattle, or San Francisco. It's probably fairly comparable to what it would buy you in Sacramento, all things considered, though. In the Bay Area, $170K is more like a bare minimum for a family income and it would still put you probably an hour outside SF for a commute. So, that upgrade would be minimal in terms of proximity to the City.

Houston is a friendly place with a strong sense of community. I think you would very comfortably move into an area like Sugar Land or perhaps Pearland, and get a good upgrade in city amenities like museums, shopping, sports, etc.) compared to suburban Sac. But in terms of the urban environment, they are actually fairly similar. Houston is simply much bigger and busier, but retains the same kind of largely suburban look and feel that Sac. has. Don't go looking for a "San Francisco on a budget" experience, though. The two places are probably the most opposite cities in America.

Houston's drawbacks have been covered pretty well. I'll try to shape them more into answers to your specific questions. It's very humid in Houston and I found it stifling. 104 degrees in Sacramento, to me, is much more manageable outdoors than 94 in Houston with its humidity and heat index. The humidity keeps Houston sticky and hot at night, too, where Sacramento cools off. That's a huge quality of life difference in the Summertime. Winters are pretty similar, but Sac. gets less rain. Spring and Fall are longer and less stormy in Sacramento.

In fact, overall, Houston is a very stormy place, with floods and high winds independent of hurricanes and tropical systems (which are a factor, but too infrequent to really worry about). If your standards are Seattle and San Francisco, you will also be disturbed by Houston's air and water quality. Both are abysmal. Sacramento, being in the Central Valley, occasionally wrestles with air quality like Houston's, but not at the prolonged levels that Houston has.

I think you will be sorely disappointed in your day-trip options in Houston. "Exploring the Gulf Coast" is going to be a letdown coming from an area where scenic Wine Country escapes, The Sierra/Lake Tahoe, huge national park lands with redwood hikes and mountain vistas, and quirky/charming Gold Country towns are approximately the same time and distance away as Galveston is from Houston. To give you a frame of reference, Galveston is kind of like a dirtier Vallejo. Other points along the immediate coast offer somewhat better coastline than Galveston's thin brown beaches and matching chocolate milk surf and range from pretty nature areas that are undeveloped and worth a single trip to see if you like saltwater fishing, to polluted industrial areas that should be avoided at all costs.

Austin and San Antonio are reasonable day and weekend trip away and are fun for families, but they are about the same distance from Houston as San Francisco is from you now. You can gauge for yourself your interest in making that length of trip for dramatically less return than you got going to the Bay Area.

As your kids get older, your priorities will shift. I sense that you understand this. Proximity to big city amenities will become less important. I think Houston is a big upgrade over Sacramento in urban living and checks a lot of boxes now. It will probably look even better as your priorities continue to change.

Is Houston a huge upgrade over Sacramento in terms of urban amenities, considering that San Francisco is a day trip away, though? I don't think so. Thus, given the same $170K in Sacramento, I would stay and raise my family there, affording them access to California higher education options and proximity to the culture of the Bay Area.

[BCEagles01]

Originally Posted by nana053

I don't live in Boston, but I miss the T. My dd lives in a Boston suburb and when I went to visit, I stayed downtown and could easily get all over Boston and out to her suburban home on the commuter rail. Of course, Boston is a very small city geographically, so you can also walk all over which you cannot do in Houston (too much sprawl).

I actually moved here from a Chicago suburb and miss the *el* as well. I could be downtown in 30 minutes from my own suburban home. And I could walk along Lake Michigan for miles on the walking and bike paths.

It is very much a walking city. I realized how small it was when I moved here. The commuter rails great. It's basically the same thing as Park and ride here. Except there you hop on the commuter rail. Never drove to any Patriots games out in Foxboro. Just get to South Station early and you'll get a seat.

Commuter rail would work great in a city like Houston and it's suburban areas. But I'm not a city planner, I just play one on here 😃

From Chicago huh ? I was looking to take a position with my company there but..........I just can't see it. I'm thinking of commuting,or take a similiar position in Dallas and just do the Dallas-Houston commute.