HP moving principle headquarters to Houston (Dallas, Austin: insurance, how much, luxury)

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

No question Houston's image significantly suffers from flooding, but it's still not as omnipresent / ubiquitous as the wildfires in coastal California's suburban areas (and a fair bit of the rest of the state). The desirable suburban areas are often situated on or against the hills where the fires happen, especially in the Bay Area. Remember Oakland 1991? Anyway, just noting that I heard anecdotal stories of wildfires prompting relocation, which was a new thing.

But yes, the overall cost, especially of housing, is the main factor. There'd be a lot more tolerance of the homeless problem, high taxes, and excessive regulation if it was still cheap to live there. Of course, the taxes and regulations are a major part of what drives up the costs, but there's other factors too (high tech wages, general premium for weather and scenery).

Regarding manufacturing, both Houston and San Antonio in particular should be strongly competing for that.

It interesting because most of the homeless in California, especially LA are from the local area. They became homeless due to loss of job and high housing costs. When I mentioned the auto makers I'm talking their corporate HQ Toyota style. It'd be nice to see Houston pick up a car plant though. Would make sense logistically.

As for the fire locations, it really just depends on the suburb. Some are right up or literally in the foothills, while others have some spacing between. Regardless it's a situation people have grown tired of as California does not do control burning to slow the wildfire threat. And a fire breaking out near your neighborhood is definitely scarier than a flood but both are traumatic.

[clerymary]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

What should college students be majoring in to get jobs at these tech companies?

Best thing you could do with your future right now, is study data science or anything related to that. Computer science is not what it used to be. Data science and anything statistics is where it's at. But that typically requires at least a masters so in terms of an undergraduate major, choose something technical like math or statistics or even economics. DO NOT do regular business school education. It is not technical enough.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

No question Houston's image significantly suffers from flooding, but it's still not as omnipresent / ubiquitous as the wildfires in coastal California's suburban areas (and a fair bit of the rest of the state). The desirable suburban areas are often situated on or against the hills where the fires happen, especially in the Bay Area. Remember Oakland 1991? Anyway, just noting that I heard anecdotal stories of wildfires prompting relocation, which was a new thing.

The thing about this is people forget overtime. Or if not forget, the care leaves. It’s human nature. The imagine of Harvey and the floods before it left an image. The flood control projects have so far improved a lot relatively speaking, and supposing they don’t “step the foot off the gas”, people the image won’t be there as long as the progress continues. What you have to do in the meantime is make sure you make due progress to prevent that from happening again.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

The thing about this is people forget overtime. Or if not forget, the care leaves. It’s human nature. The imagine of Harvey and the floods before it left an image. The flood control projects have so far improved a lot relatively speaking, and supposing they don’t “step the foot off the gas”, people the image won’t be there as long as the progress continues. What you have to do in the meantime is make sure you make due progress to prevent that from happening again.

True. A couple of positive news stories on the improvements with proof it works, and the images of Harvey will be a memory of how Houston used to flood. Houston has a lot of potential once flooding is under control and other street improvements happen (street light sensors, improved sidewalks, etc.). It's filling in the blanks right now which is a great sign to see.

[vwgto]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

While those things in California can definitely be ridiculous and excessive, it's just the sheer costs of living and doing business there, plus the relentless threats of wildfires, droughts, and earthquakes, which are likely the bigger factors. Apparently it's getting difficult to hire talented people from elsewhere in the U.S. to locate there because of those factors. (Of course, the excessive regulations and taxes also contribute to those high costs.)

I think the omnipresent smoke and poor air quality in the Bay Area this year made a major impression on a lot of folks out there. Anecdotally I've heard stories that the fires finally prompted a lot of folks to decide to relocate.

Suggesting an IT company would move to Houston from Silicon Valley due to environmental motives is laughable. Houston has stifling heat, polluted water and air due to reckless manufacturers, hurricanes, floods, droughts, etc.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by vwgto

Suggesting an IT company would move to Houston from Silicon Valley due to environmental motives is laughable. Houston has stifling heat, polluted water and air due to reckless manufacturers, hurricanes, floods, droughts, etc.

Um, California is no clean-water paradise, my friend. And when I lived in Silicon Valley (late 1980s / early 1990s) I distinctly remember the "brown layer" hanging over the area.

Obviously Houston is not an environmental paradise, but the pretty scenery and nice weather in coastal CA only gets you so far. And Houston has plenty of very nice suburbs that easily compete with suburban California developments other than access to mountains - and you get a much nicer house for the price.

I do think Houston will compete better for relocations from Southern CA rather than the Bay Area because of the depth of animus Bay Areans have toward TX (except Austin) and especially Houston due to its association with the evil oil industry. Of course, you'd think Chevron would have moved its HQ here by now, and many Bay Areans would say, "don't let the door hit ya..."

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

I do think Houston will compete better for relocations from Southern CA rather than the Bay Area because of the depth of animus Bay Areans have toward TX (except Austin) and especially Houston due to its association with the evil oil industry. Of course, you'd think Chevron would have moved its HQ here by now, and many Bay Areans would say, "don't let the door hit ya..."

Smart draw moved to thee woodlands last week along with all 100 or so employees they had as a whole..., From San Diego so you could be right. But I don’t think that. There has been some silicon valley companies that have moved here recently. I will say this though. For whatever reason, historically, it seems that the biggest magnet Houston has been that companies have relocated is actually Florida. Not sure why but many companies here you wouldn’t know were from Florida originally.

[NigerianNightmare]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Smart draw moved to thee woodlands last week along with all 100 or so employees they had as a whole..., From San Diego so you could be right. But I don’t think that. There has been some silicon valley companies that have moved here recently. I will say this though. For whatever reason, historically, it seems that the biggest magnet Houston has been that companies have relocated is actually Florida. Not sure why but many companies here you wouldn’t know were from Florida originally.

It's good to see these relocations and all but do you know any large companies, to recently crop up (maybe not Fortune 500 but increasing in size), that are Houston raised? Or at least from Texas. Homegrown corporations would really show how the city evolved.

[EDS_]

This is a really nice pick-up for the Houston area well done.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by vwgto

Suggesting an IT company would move to Houston from Silicon Valley due to environmental motives is laughable. Houston has stifling heat, polluted water and air due to reckless manufacturers, hurricanes, floods, droughts, etc.

Disagree. Climate refugee-ism is real. It's already happening. Houston has it's environmental problems to be sure and hurricanes are part of the broader climate change risk landscape, but as someone said, it's easier to mitigate than fires.