Time to Leave Houston? (Dallas, Austin: transplants, homes, safe neighborhood)

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I lived in Missouri for many years and I knew that moving here I was going to miss the trees and hills.

Keep in mind, the grass is not always greener in the other side
I remember St. Louis and Kansas City being just as hot and humid as Houston during the summer
True, their summer is shorter … but they also have fewer “nice days”

In Houston you suffer through the summer and then get 4 months of perfect weather
In Missouri, nice weather is usually in Spring/Fall and usually it means that a cold front (storm with tornadoes) is on the way

Thanks for this — I’ll cross Missouri off my list lol! I’ve been pouring through the data on Weatherspark, which has some really cool breakdowns of weather for every city. One big problem with the Houston weather isn’t necessarily the weather itself, but the inability to escape it.

I grew up in Phoenix and the summers were just as miserable, but it two hours I could be up in the mountains at 7,000 feet and go camping or mountain biking with my family without any issues. Same thing for the Carolinas — they also have hot and humid summers, but you can escape to the Smokey’s for a long weekend.

In Houston, camping is just a miserable experience 7 months out of the year and you have to drive 12+ hours to get away from it during those months. We even bought a boat last summer, but the lakes here are pretty bad too. Water as warm as a bathtub, so brown you can’t see your feet, and you’re still on 100 degree weather. The kids still had fun being pulled on the tubes, but it didn’t quite do it for me.

[S.Allen]

Maybe you just need to go to a different PART of Texas. This is a big state with slightly different climates, depending on where you go.


In the Hill Country and other parts of the western half, you CAN boat in lakes with limestone bottoms that are WAY clearer and nicer than the lakes around Houston. You can also escape the humidity and get more of a 4 seasons climate if you want. I have always loved the western part of Texas and cities like Lubbock, San Angelo, Abilene and Waco.


Back in 2004, we bought country property with a small fixer-upper house on it, with plans to slowly fix the house and land and retire out there when we reach 65. This is still about 10 years away, but man...am I glad we bought when we did!


Rural land in TX has gotten real expensive and I am still sure that we are going to escape Houston when we retire.


This city is too crowded, too hot, too much crime and is not a good place for older people, so we are looking forward to living in a more rural and less crowded place someday. We also will not miss the constantly escalating property taxes and headaches of living in a large urban area.


Be sure you fully research all angles of any place you plan on going. There might be taxes or some off laws or other features that can make a place that LOOKS really appealing, be a not-so-great place to live. I, for one. do not care if a place has 70 degrees year round, if the taxes are high or there are other features that might make life there more difficult.

[lhafer]

I’m born and raised Texan. Lived in Houston for 20 years. Husband was in Oil & Gas for 20 years. Earlier this year, he quit his job, and started a new career, in a new type of position, with a brand new company in a new field - and we don’t regret it. We moved to Orlando, FL, which at first I wasn’t happy about. Like you I wanted 4 season, cooler temps, and mountains. Instead we moved from hot and humid to hot and humid. But at least there’s great beaches and Disney here!

Houston is a great place to work and raise a family. It’s not a place I would visit, or retire to. I quickly grew tired of Houston - so much concrete, not enough green space, etc. The diversity of people and food is amazing. And if you are in the medical field or in Oil & Gas, then it’s a great place to work. But other than that….nothing was keeping us there. All of our family lives in DFW area, and I used to work in the med center, and my husband worked in the ship channel. Once those the work ties were severed - we didn’t need or want to stay.

So we sold our house and moved 1,000 miles away - and we have 2 kids, 1 starting 6th grade, another entering 10th grade in the fall. And you know what? They were SO EXCITED to move! Will they miss friends? Yes. But kids are adaptable, and make new friends. After moving quite a bit over the past decade, I can easily say our kids are much more knowledgable about life in general because we opened their eyes to other places and be open to new experiences.

I say go for it. Life’s too short to sit around and ask yourself “what if” all day long.

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I lived in Missouri for many years and I knew that moving here I was going to miss the trees and hills.

Keep in mind, the grass is not always greener in the other side
I remember St. Louis and Kansas City being just as hot and humid as Houston during the summer
True, their summer is shorter … but they also have fewer “nice days”

In Houston you suffer through the summer and then get 4 months of perfect weather
In Missouri, nice weather is usually in Spring/Fall and usually it means that a cold front (storm with tornadoes) is on the way

Perfect weather? I guess it's perfect comparing it to St. Louis and Kansas City. That part of the country has some of the worst weather in the country to me. But I wouldn't associate perfect weather w/ Houston.

[S.Allen]

From November to April, weather in Houston CAN be really nice at times.


I recall riding my bike in shirt sleeves only in January many times. You will NOT be doing that in northern parts of our state or in the northern states at all. LOL

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by S.Allen

From November to April, weather in Houston CAN be really nice at times.


I recall riding my bike in shirt sleeves only in January many times. You will NOT be doing that in northern parts of our state or in the northern states at all. LOL

Good thing Astroworld Fest is at this time.

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by S.Allen

From November to April, weather in Houston CAN be really nice at times.


I recall riding my bike in shirt sleeves only in January many times. You will NOT be doing that in northern parts of our state or in the northern states at all. LOL

I agree. I wouldn’t say it’s perfect during that four months (hello Great Freeze of ‘21!), but there are several near-perfect weeks during that entire period.

[Oskar_Z28]

Originally Posted by Texascrude

I need some life advice, and where better to get it from than a forum of strangers on the internet???

My family and I moved to Houston about 11 years ago for work at one of the big oil companies. I’ve enjoyed my career, and for the most part have enjoyed Houston, but am starting to wonder if it’s time to head somewhere else while the decision is still in my hands.

For those of you who are not from the are, what keeps you here? Do you plan on retiring in Houston, or is it mostly just the job? I’m lucky enough that the skills I’ve developed are transferable to just about any industry, and I’m pretty sure I could find a comparable job in most mid to large sized cities paying anywhere from 80% to 120% of my current salary.

I’m thinking a place with four seasons, mountains, outdoor lifestyles…. Maybe like a Knoxville / Greenville / Charlotte type city. I’m torn though, because we don’t hate it here and I don’t hate my job…. We just don’t love it. So, I ask again — what’s keeping you here (for those not raised here)?

What keeps me in Houston is exactly same thing that keeps you here, except I've been here since '97. I have worked in O&G since that time. I still enjoy what I do so I am staying for time being. However if the industry keeps changing to a point that my work is not enjoyable anymore, I will look for opportunities somewhere else. What has me somewhat concerned is that I am already in my 40s so opportunities may not be there as much as someone younger. If the current O&G climate happened 10 years ago and I was not so ingrained in it, I'd look for something else somewhere else.

Why somewhere else? I really don't like the big spread out city like Houston with not that natural settings to get away. I'd prefer to live on a coast (proper coast) or somewhere with mountains and less people. Also, most of my and my wife's family lives overseas on 3 continents, so there is nothing that really ties me to here.

[hendersj31]

This is our plan too. Our youngest is in High School and that is pretty much what keeps us in Houston. He has no interest in moving right now. Wife and I are about to purchase rural land as well and with the rising prices wish we did it sooner but it isn't bad enough to be a deal breaker, we capitalized on properties in Houston before the "boom" so it's fine.
We like a lot of things about Texas and will most likely stay. Rural land not too far from a small town, lake or river is what we are after. Been exploring the last several weekends and have a few target areas.

Originally Posted by S.Allen

Maybe you just need to go to a different PART of Texas. This is a big state with slightly different climates, depending on where you go.


In the Hill Country and other parts of the western half, you CAN boat in lakes with limestone bottoms that are WAY clearer and nicer than the lakes around Houston. You can also escape the humidity and get more of a 4 seasons climate if you want. I have always loved the western part of Texas and cities like Lubbock, San Angelo, Abilene and Waco.


Back in 2004, we bought country property with a small fixer-upper house on it, with plans to slowly fix the house and land and retire out there when we reach 65. This is still about 10 years away, but man...am I glad we bought when we did!


Rural land in TX has gotten real expensive and I am still sure that we are going to escape Houston when we retire.


This city is too crowded, too hot, too much crime and is not a good place for older people, so we are looking forward to living in a more rural and less crowded place someday. We also will not miss the constantly escalating property taxes and headaches of living in a large urban area.


Be sure you fully research all angles of any place you plan on going. There might be taxes or some off laws or other features that can make a place that LOOKS really appealing, be a not-so-great place to live. I, for one. do not care if a place has 70 degrees year round, if the taxes are high or there are other features that might make life there more difficult.

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by Oskar_Z28

What keeps me in Houston is exactly same thing that keeps you here, except I've been here since '97. I have worked in O&G since that time. I still enjoy what I do so I am staying for time being. However if the industry keeps changing to a point that my work is not enjoyable anymore, I will look for opportunities somewhere else. What has me somewhat concerned is that I am already in my 40s so opportunities may not be there as much as someone younger. If the current O&G climate happened 10 years ago and I was not so ingrained in it, I'd look for something else somewhere else.

Why somewhere else? I really don't like the big spread out city like Houston with not that natural settings to get away. I'd prefer to live on a coast (proper coast) or somewhere with mountains and less people. Also, most of my and my wife's family lives overseas on 3 continents, so there is nothing that really ties me to here.

This is one of my biggest concerns. I’m 38 and can jump ship right now without any problems. I’m concerned that if I stay, and things go bad 10 years from now that I’ll be forced to look elsewhere and won’t be nearly as marketable. As always, it’s not a single item that’s causing me to start looking around for other opportunities, but it certainly feels like that’s the direction life is pointing me towards.