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I currently live in Durham, but moved here last year from San Antonio (Helotes, to be exact). I loved the San Antonio area. I still miss it although I don't miss the traffic congestion! In the 5 years I lived there, we never had any tornadoes. We did have quite a few flash floods due the hard clay ground (mainly in September, it seemed). Nothing bad enough to deter me from moving there. As for safety, somebody on this post mentioned crime. To be honest, I felt MUCH safer there than I do in Durham. Of course SA is a big city, but the bad areas were very easy to avoid.
As for housing, Stone Oak is nice, but you've got an extreme amount of urban sprawl. Personally, I prefer west of I-10. My old subdivision was called Iron Horse Canyon and I'd highly recommend it. Beautiful area, good schools, pool, backs up to a nature preserve, and homes ranging from $200-1 million. (There was a Southern Living home featured there). You are 5 minutes from restaurants, groceries, and retail shopping, 10 minutes from La Cantera and you avoid most of the traffic congestion of the Stone Oak area. PM me if you want more info about San Antonio or other subdivisions.
Oh, I forgot to mention the heat...
The winters in SA are warmer, but not too hot. Lots of sunshine. January was my favorite month. Summers were hot. Not so much humidity as Houston though. I've only had one summer in the Raleigh-Durham area, and the heat/humidity here last summer seemed comparable to San Anton. I think the biggest difference (weather-wise) is winter. Raleigh has a short mild one whereas San Antonio didn't have one.
And if you are interested in checking out schools in the area I was talking about, the zip code is 78023. (The high school is Sandra Day O'Connor, but I don't know the middle or elementary schools).
I would agree that I find the Williamsburg area very desirable. I wasn't that impressed with Norfolk, but there are plenty of charming areas around Williamsburg...this is from a visitors prospective tho. There is no perfect place, but I do think the Raleigh area has a great balance of everything on the "quality of life" list.
IMO, you have never been to williamsburg. you may have passed it on the way to norfolk for some reason, but you have never been there. williamsburg not a good place to visit? that is a joke isn't it? williamsburg is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. not the US, the world. that is where america was born. the historic triangle of williamsburg, yorktown, and jamestown has got to be the most beautiful, and well maintained area on the east coast. I wouldn't live there, but for visiting, I will take jamestown est. 1605 over cary est. 1984, any day. people don't visit suburbs.
Are you kidding me? Williamsburg is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world? Really. Since I have been to, or lived in, England, Germany, Mexico, the Caribbean and numerous locations in the US, I looked up that statistic for you. Williamsburg doesn't even make the top 25 AMERICAN most visited tourist sites. Finally, unless you are my beloved husband, I'm pretty sure you don't know where I have been...Fact: I have been to (and stayed in) the Williamsburg/Norfolk area several times, thanks for asking.
It sounds like you want a place that is a weather utopia. Maybe Hawaii would be a better choice for you! It is nearly impossible to completely escape all of those weather events altogether. It seems like every region has its thing. This spring has been a rather active tornado season for the NC piedmont, so you won't be completely escaping them here, although the major cities of the Triangle have not seen a major tornado this year.
Flooding has been known to happen in certain areas of the Triangle as well, considering that there are several rivers and creeks running through Triangle towns. The drought has kept that down lately, but I heard that there was some flooding in Raleigh when the remnants of a tropical storm came through in June '06.
The Triangle will feel the effects of hurricanes and tropical storms that make landfall on the coast, but it will not be the same as experiencing one at the coast. Storms typically weaken as they move over land, and usually bring a lot of rain and sometimes tornados (hurricanes often spawn tornados within themselves) to inland areas. I would not consider this area as regularly being "hit pretty hard" by hurricanes, but because the area has a lot of large trees and does not experience hurricanes on a regular basis, I'm sure this can cause a lot of downed trees, and thus downed powerlines, etc. I have only experienced hurricanes in Miami, so I can't say what it is like in the Triangle, but at least you won't be dealing with a storm surge!
This comment kinda made me go, "Huh?" Cary is not really all that close to Durham, first of all (it is much closer to Raleigh). Second, Durham as a whole is not a diseased city that spreads 'decline' to neighboring communities. Every city will have pocket areas that are less desirable and have higher crime, but those areas do not define an entire city, nor do they infect other cities that are otherwise in better shape. That is just the nature of our society. In any case, Cary is pretty much a vanilla suburb, or bedroom community, of Raleigh. It is very much what most people would think of as a typical American suburb.
Thanks for the helpful info about NC. Cary seems like a good place to live. So far, it ranks #2 on my list behind SA. Flooding in SA can surely be avoided easier than tornadoes in NC, even though NC major cities don't get hit often, and NC also has flooding. SA is hard to beat for entertainment for the low price, IMO.
Oh, I forgot to mention the heat...
The winters in SA are warmer, but not too hot. Lots of sunshine. January was my favorite month. Summers were hot. Not so much humidity as Houston though. I've only had one summer in the Raleigh-Durham area, and the heat/humidity here last summer seemed comparable to San Anton. I think the biggest difference (weather-wise) is winter. Raleigh has a short mild one whereas San Antonio didn't have one.
And if you are interested in checking out schools in the area I was talking about, the zip code is 78023. (The high school is Sandra Day O'Connor, but I don't know the middle or elementary schools).
I think I could deal with the heat of SA as long as I could get away from the constant winter and spring gloom (It bothers me a lot sometimes) + ice and snow in the winter. I would have guessed that SA humidity is less than in NC since SA is a off the coast and to the west a bit, but I guess I'm wrong. I think I remember seeing on a weather site that SA humidity is significantly less than Springfield IL in the summer. I have a bunch of winter coats. I guess I wouldn't need them at all in SA?
I currently live in Durham, but moved here last year from San Antonio (Helotes, to be exact). I loved the San Antonio area. I still miss it although I don't miss the traffic congestion! In the 5 years I lived there, we never had any tornadoes. We did have quite a few flash floods due the hard clay ground (mainly in September, it seemed). Nothing bad enough to deter me from moving there. As for safety, somebody on this post mentioned crime. To be honest, I felt MUCH safer there than I do in Durham. Of course SA is a big city, but the bad areas were very easy to avoid.
As for housing, Stone Oak is nice, but you've got an extreme amount of urban sprawl. Personally, I prefer west of I-10. My old subdivision was called Iron Horse Canyon and I'd highly recommend it. Beautiful area, good schools, pool, backs up to a nature preserve, and homes ranging from $200-1 million. (There was a Southern Living home featured there). You are 5 minutes from restaurants, groceries, and retail shopping, 10 minutes from La Cantera and you avoid most of the traffic congestion of the Stone Oak area. PM me if you want more info about San Antonio or other subdivisions.
Hey, you've been a big help! I'm going to save the info you gave me for future use if we do decide to move. One thing that concerns me some is someone mentioning that some SA flooding in recent years caused damage (probably foundational?) to 40,000 homes.
The riverwalk looks great from the pics I've seen. Did you ever get tired of going there? Are the beaches in Corpus Christi (2 hours away from SA) worth going to? If not, do you know if canyon lake has a nice beach and would be a good place to spend time and cool off?
I'm going to PM you about your old subdivision. It sounds perfect.
Nope, you won't need a heavy winter coat for SA. A leather jacket will do, although it did snow once when I was there! It immediately disappeared though...
You are right about the cost of living. It was great! I had a beautiful brick/limestone home. Can't get that here for anywhere NEAR the price I paid there. As for entertainment in SA, it's great, too. Sea World, the missions, Riverwalk, the Rodeo, King William district and First Fridays, the Majestic Theater, La Villita, and of course, you gotta love the Spurs! (Can you tell I miss it?!) Restaurants are good there, but as the old joke goes, "you can find any kind of restaurant in San Antonio-- Mexican, German-Mexican, Italian-Mexican..." :-)
BTW: The beaches in NC are much nicer. They were okay in Corpus Christi (Mustang Island, etc.) and decent in South Padre. The OBX and other NC beaches beat Texas beaches in my book though! (Something to do with the silt floating over from the Mississippi River in TX)
As I see it, there were two big negatives to SA. The traffic, especially on I-10, Loop 410, and 1604 from La Cantera all the way east to I-35. If you choose SA, be VERY careful about where you choose to live. (Not just for schools, but also for the commute to work). When people here complain about the traffic, I just remember the days when I used to sit, not moving, for hours on 410 I-10, and 1604. The second biggest negative was the distance you had to drive to get out of Texas. It'll take you a good 8-10 hours to get to skiing in N. Mexico. Better just fly there!
And there are mountains in Texas, but you have to go to Big Bend National Park or to the Guadalupe Mountains. North of San Antonio, you've got hills. (The Hill Country...)
Any opinions on Atlanta? I didn't include it in this thread. I figured homes are too expensive there for what I'm capable of affording. Crime might be a concern also, since I probably couldn't afford the better neighborhoods there. I do like the fact that it has the ocean and mountains in the same state, even though the two are at opposite ends. I also like Atlanta being a short drive to Florida. I think tornadoes are more of a problem there though.
Nope, you won't need a heavy winter coat for SA. A leather jacket will do, although it did snow once when I was there! It immediately disappeared though...
You are right about the cost of living. It was great! I had a beautiful brick/limestone home. Can't get that here for anywhere NEAR the price I paid there. As for entertainment in SA, it's great, too. Sea World, the missions, Riverwalk, the Rodeo, King William district and First Fridays, the Majestic Theater, La Villita, and of course, you gotta love the Spurs! (Can you tell I miss it?!) Restaurants are good there, but as the old joke goes, "you can find any kind of restaurant in San Antonio-- Mexican, German-Mexican, Italian-Mexican..." :-)
BTW: The beaches in NC are much nicer. They were okay in Corpus Christi (Mustang Island, etc.) and decent in South Padre. The OBX and other NC beaches beat Texas beaches in my book though! (Something to do with the silt floating over from the Mississippi River in TX)
As I see it, there were two big negatives to SA. The traffic, especially on I-10, Loop 410, and 1604 from La Cantera all the way east to I-35. If you choose SA, be VERY careful about where you choose to live. (Not just for schools, but also for the commute to work). When people here complain about the traffic, I just remember the days when I used to sit, not moving, for hours on 410 I-10, and 1604. The second biggest negative was the distance you had to drive to get out of Texas. It'll take you a good 8-10 hours to get to skiing in N. Mexico. Better just fly there!
And there are mountains in Texas, but you have to go to Big Bend National Park or to the Guadalupe Mountains. North of San Antonio, you've got hills. (The Hill Country...)
Restaurants are good there, but as the old joke goes, "you can find any kind of restaurant in San Antonio-- Mexican, German-Mexican, Italian-Mexican..." :-)
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I hadn't heard that one. That's hilarious! Come on now though, in all seriousness, SA is huge and has to have a large variety in fine dining. Surely.
Yeah, I've heard that beaches in Galveston and Corpus are kinda murky. I'm ok with a good lake beach anyway (surely I could find one of those near SA). I worry about sharks .
I've heard people complain about high taxes in SA but that must just be compared to other TX cities. I think SA taxes are probably lower than most cities in central to northern IL and thr average state in the US.
One of your two main dislikes about SA is the far drive out of it and you mentioned skiiing. You're faced with the same long drive to a ski resort from Cary, right? Otherwise, TX has about everything, right? So is it safe to say that you would move back to SA if the traffic was less and you didn't have personal ties to NC?
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