moving to texas/business (Houston, Dallas: for sale, crime, to buy)

[alessidio]

my wife and i are looking to move to texas for a better living and business opportunity. we currently live in Ny state and we have no idea about texas.

we would like to know opinions about different areas...

what is the best area for a small restaurant business and to live (safe,schools, bad weather etc)

we are really confused with everything we are reading about different places like plano, friendswood etc. some people are saying that they are not safe some people say they are.

i really need your help.

p.s some websites have texas as the last safe states to live and that makes us nervous

[texasdiver]

Plano and Friendswood are upscale suburbs of Dallas and Houston.

The state is too big to generalize. Any statistics that generalize about Texas statewide are useless as Texas is larger than many countries.

Any one of the larger metro areas will plenty of nice areas, nice schools, and business opportunities. It depends on your budget and where you want to live.

The restaurant business is rough no matter where you go and Texas is no exception. I think you would be insane to try to open your own restaurant without having lived here first and get a feel for traffic flow, competition, local tastes, etc. Unless perhaps you were to open a franchise or something like that. Or buy an existing restaurant that had a good location and customer base.

[alessidio]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Plano and Friendswood are upscale suburbs of Dallas and Houston.

The state is too big to generalize. Any statistics that generalize about Texas statewide are useless as Texas is larger than many countries.

Any one of the larger metro areas will plenty of nice areas, nice schools, and business opportunities. It depends on your budget and where you want to live.

The restaurant business is rough no matter where you go and Texas is no exception. I think you would be insane to try to open your own restaurant without having lived here first and get a feel for traffic flow, competition, local tastes, etc. Unless perhaps you were to open a franchise or something like that. Or buy an existing restaurant that had a good location and customer base.

thank you for the quick response..
we were thinking to buy an existing restaurant

we here in ny have a stagnant economy and from all of our reading and friends that we have talk to are finding out that texas and utah have many more opportunities and prospects for growth.

our only concern is the safety because we have read many articles that contradict each other and nothing is really making sense

[explorer2014]

Originally Posted by alessidio

thank you for the quick response..
we were thinking to buy an existing restaurant

we here in ny have a stagnant economy and from all of our reading and friends that we have talk to are finding out that texas and utah have many more opportunities and prospects for growth.

our only concern is the safety because we have read many articles that contradict each other and nothing is really making sense

It depends what you mean by safe. Nowhere is completely safe but there are very safe parts of every city and places that are downright dangerous. Plano is a higher income area as Texasdiver pointed out and it has a reputation as one of the better parts of the DFW area.

[RMFW]

Recommend taking a close look at Fort Worth. Things are already solid and the next 5-15 years look very promising.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by alessidio

my wife and i are looking to move to texas for a better living and business opportunity. we currently live in Ny state and we have no idea about texas.

we would like to know opinions about different areas...

what is the best area for a small restaurant business and to live (safe,schools, bad weather etc)

we are really confused with everything we are reading about different places like plano, friendswood etc. some people are saying that they are not safe some people say they are.

i really need your help.

p.s some websites have texas as the last safe states to live and that makes us nervous

Friendswood is absolutely safe their Police department has a reputation for being very protective and quick to respond.

I don't know if you have a specific property in mind but you may want to check out this website that list restaurants for sale...

The restaurant scenes in both Metro's are very active, for people in Texas like to eat out a lot and can usually do so year round.

Houston, TX Restaurants For Sale - BizBuySell.com

[MiaMia411]

Im from NJ , currently live by Austin. My wife and i have been around Dallas and Houston, nothing down here is ghetto like the east coast and the areas you named are far from bad areas. Texas is a huge state, you will have crime in every state.

[alessidio]

Thanks everyone for your quick response we live upstate its more "quiet" but we sick of the weather and its not working out well. Ive checked the website that you post it for restaurants but nothing special that i saw. We are still confused we want to know that we can walk around safe without anyone is shooting ,like you hear on the news etc.

[love roses]

For the most part, you'll be safe walking around.

[TXsurburbanmom]

Could you please refer me to the websites that list Texas as the most dangerous state to live in. Also what news stories are you referring to? Other than the recent tragic killing of a newly arrived Iraqi immigrant I'm not aware of people often being shot just walking around. Shootings occur in Texas but random shootings are not really frequent. The murder rate is higher in many other states especially if you look at percentages. I'd feel much safer in any city in Texas than Memphis, Detroit or New Orleans. Obviously you can't compare the safety of say the west side of San Antonio to an affluent suburb of Memphis, but I've got a friend from there and parts of San Antonio that scare me don't phase her - and she lived in a nice area. After I saw your post I looked around online and Texas does not show up as most violent anywhere I can find.