Relocation to Houston from Wisconsin! (Missouri City, Pearland: house, neighborhoods, construction)

[Bike4Life]

I must intervene. I work in South Campus near the Reliant Stadium and it's not as bad as it used to be like 25 years ago. There is no night-life which is fine for lots of medical students who live in and around the area. Plus the area has a strong security presence because of Reliant Stadium, the Texas Medical Center and universities also have their own police department prowling around for suspects and quickly slap a trespassing warning and post your snapshot all over the Internet. Some of the largest apartment complexes are owned by the University of Texas on South Campus.

Lots of professional people who work in TMC live anywhere just west of Main Street where most of it consist of established homes and new public schools. Places can be Linkwood, Bellaire, Ayrshire, Westwood, Willow Meadows, Willowbend, Post Oak Manor, parts of Westbury, Maplewood and many more in the area are well connected.

Pearland is a nice but I would never live there. Especially, you coming from a small town may prefer a short drive to work as oppose to some locals who thought their first Pearland home was great when the commute was 35 minutes. Then as it grew, it became 45 minutes...55...and one stall car in front of you will certainly ruin your evening.

[jgean]

I figure traffic will be bad no matter where you live. We would like to have that small town feel as much as possible.

[jgean]

Bike Are nice rentals hard to come by in the areas you mentioned?

[jgean]

what are your thoughts on katy? seems to offer more house for the money...

[jgean]

We are starting to lean more toward Katy due to the cost of rental homes in other towns.

[dv1033]

Katy is pretty far from the Reliant Area. I would stay within southwest and south of your job. Sugarland and Missouri City aren't a terrible drive and both offer multiple routes to get there, unlike Pearland. I think Sugarland would be your best bet if you wanted to live out in the burbs. Pearland is great but it is just newer and not as "organized" as Sugarland. However, there are many nice neighborhoods near Reliant like Meyerland, Braeswood, and Bellaire (this is the most expensive) that are more established.

[ZeroTX]

You can find a great deal in Missouri City and use the Fort Bend Tollroad and Beltway 8 to get to work. The commute wouldn't be too bad and the prices there are great. Look at something over off Texas Parkway. There's a lot of rental homes there and much of the area is open land, because until recently there was no really good way in/out of there (it's better now w/ the Beltway and Fort Bend Tollway). Look at Missouri City.

[jgean]

is house/rental insurance really expensive? another concern...critters! spiders, scorpions, snakes, alligators, killer bees, fire ants...how common are these things?

[dv1033]

Originally Posted by jgean

is house/rental insurance really expensive? another concern...critters! spiders, scorpions, snakes, alligators, killer bees, fire ants...how common are these things?

Not sure about insurance. However, Houston does have lots of bugs and there are alligators depending on where you live but they are very rare. There are snakes but nothing serious, I've seen lots of green garden snakes. Lots of fire ants.

[ZeroTX]

Home insurance is among the highest in the nation. Rental insurance used to be cheap when I last rented, but it may not be anymore.

I lived up in Spring, with a forested area and a large drainage ditch behind my house. When I first moved in, I paid for interior & exterior bug spraying, and follow-ups for the next few months. That cut bugs down to nearly nothing. Then for 7+ years, I had no kind of extermination done at all. I would probably do "bug bombs" (the RAID kind you buy at any grocery store), mostly to kill fleas (from a dog).

Snake-wise, I would occasionally see them, but no more than one per year and never a close encounter.

We don't have scorpions here. I've never, ever seen one. Killer bees? Again, don't think so. We have little tiny bees, not even the big honey kind, as far as I know (except bee keepers). Fire ants? Yes, welcome to Texas. Of course we have fire ants. They're not a big deal. You pour some poison on them. They don't hide, they make big dirt mounds in the yard and are easily taken care of if you get to them before they mess up your grass. You will have "tree roaches" now and then, particularly in the garage or sneaking in through the fireplace. They are not the "dirty" kind of roaches that you might find in a restaurant kitchen. They are, in fact, coming inside to get away from the extreme heat/cold, but are not particularly a nuisance, nor are they hard to kill. Some fairly mild bug spray will take them out, as will the bottom of your shoe. You might also encounter "silverfish" in bathrooms now and then. These are some really revolting silver colored bugs that kind-of slither. As far as I know they're harmless other than being gross to look at. Again, simple bug sprays take care of those. Never seen an alligator in my life outside of a zoo. Fleas will be an issue if you have pets and don't take care to treat them. I occasionally see tiny little spiders. I hate spiders, but I just smash them when I can.

There are critters everywhere, you just have to grow accustomed to your local critters Really, some of it is luck. Some people have sugar ant problems and have to resort to major bug spraying. Others never have those problems.

edit: I forgot about the most annoying bugs we have... it's not fire ants or roaches, but WASPS. They are a scourge in the summer-time. Beware of their nests and buy the high powered wasp spray cans and take them out as quickly as you can find them. There are also their cousins, yellow-jackets and their harmless, but annoying, cousins "dirt dobbers."